A guard at a federal prison in Fort Dix, Burlington County, had a lengthy sexual relationship with a prisoner and sometimes paid other inmates to act as lookouts while the two had sex in an office, according to federal authorities.
Jordan Pensak of North Brunswick was charged this week with sexual abuse of a person in custody, court records show.
Pensak’s relationship with the prisoner — whom authorities did not identify — began after she started working on his unit in 2024, according to a criminal complaint. A witness reported the pair’s suspected encounters to law enforcement, the complaint said, saying Pensak and the man had sex “multiple times” in an office as the paid lookouts stood nearby and watched for other corrections officers.
Investigators found more than 100 sexually explicit photos and messages that Pensak and the prisoner shared on Instagram and on cell phones the man apparently possessed while behind bars, the complaint said.
At times, the document said, Pensak was overt in the messages about her relationship with the prisoner, writing in a January message to an unidentified recipient that she had been in the relationship “for the past year” and that she didn’t intend to end it.
A month later, the complaint said, when someone else asked Pensak if she knew she could be criminally charged and go to jail for her actions, she wrote back: “Yes I know.”
Pensak also sent messages to people earlier this year in which she detailed a pregnancy scare, the complaint said. At one point, she said that if she were pregnant, the baby would be a different race than her husband, and that it “ain’t good for this investigation.”
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on the allegations against Pensak, but did say Pensak had been placed on administrative leave.
Attempts to reach Pensak’s lawyer for comment Wednesday were not immediately successful.
A Havertown man was charged Tuesday with terroristic threats, ethnic intimidation, and related crimes after prosecutors said he left racist, threatening voicemails for the Delaware County sheriff.
Sean Keenan, 40, made 15 calls earlier this month to the sheriff’s office in a 24-hour period, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. Keenan left two voicemails, during which he used a racial slur to refer to Sheriff Siddiq Kamara, who is Black, threatened to hunt him down, and called for “death to Islam.” Kamara is a Muslim whose family came to Delaware County from their native Liberia.
Keenan was released on $100,000 unsecured bond. There was no indication he had hired an attorney. Keenan did not return a request for comment.
In announcing the charges, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said Keenan’s words were “vile, disgusting, and completely unacceptable.”
“There is a time when language crosses the line into criminal behavior, and that is exactly what we have here,” Rouse said. “Threats of violence, most especially racially motivated violence, have no place in Delaware County, regardless of who the intended victim may be.”
Kamara, in a statement last week, said that he welcomes criticism as a public official, but that threats of violence cross the line.
Investigators said they used phone records to trace the numbers that made the call to two phones registered to Keenan, according to the affidavit. One of those numbers called 911 in February to report a car crash, and a recording of the caller’s voice matched Keenan’s.
After serving a search warrant on Keenan’s personal and work-issued cell phones, detectives found evidence that he had left the voicemails on July 18 and July 19, the affidavit said. In an interview with police, Keenan admitted to leaving the voicemails, the document said.
He is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 7.
The phone rang at lunchtime, the way it did every day. Carisia Magobet answered within seconds.
An automated voice spoke first: This call is from a Pennsylvania state correctional institution.
Then his.
“May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be with you, my love,” Matthew Garcia said in Arabic.
They had only 15 minutes, and for once, Magobet did not spend the first of them on small talk. There was no good way to tell him what she knew: State lawmakers had gone home the night before without taking the vote that the couple had hoped would bring him home.
Garcia was 18 in 1998 when he and four friends set out to rob a Hunting Park bar. He said he was the lookout and did not have a gun.
One of the teens pointed a sawed-off shotgun at a bartender and demanded cash. A retired Philadelphia police officer, Frank King, was inside the bar and grabbed for the gun. Another teen shot him with a pistol. King died on the floor.
By that time, Garcia said, he had already run.
It didn’t matter.
All five were convicted of second-degree murder — a killing committed during a felony, no matter who pulled the trigger — and sentenced to the only punishment Pennsylvania law allowed: life without the possibility of parole.
Magobet, who had known Garcia since they were kids in Hunting Park, was in the courtroom on June 21, 2000, the day he was sentenced. For decades, they did not see each other again.
Then, about two years ago, she found Garcia’s Facebook account, where he shared his writing and his work inside State Correctional Institution-Chester, the prison he called home. She reached out.
Garcia told her about a case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that could mean freedom for people serving life sentences in cases like his.
Derek Lee, a Pittsburgh man sentenced to life in prison for his role in a fatal robbery in which a coconspirator fired the fatal shot, had challenged the mandatory punishment as unconstitutional, saying it failed to account for individual culpability.
In March — six months after Magobet and Garcia wed in a prison visiting room — the high court struck down mandatory life sentences for second-degree murder.
It gave lawmakers until July 24 to write new sentencing guidelines for future cases and determine how, or whether, the ruling would apply to the roughly 1,100 Pennsylvanians already serving that sentence.
The stalemate places in limbo everything Magobet, 40, and Garcia, 45, have spent the last two years assembling in anticipation of a freedom both yearn for but neither can control.
Building together
She loved him first.
Magobet was 13 when Garcia’s sister got married and they were both in the wedding party. He was supposed to walk her down the aisle. But at the last minute, the pairs were swapped, and she walked with his brother instead. Magobet decided, quietly, that she was owed that walk one day.
She never told him. Not before his arrest, not for years after he went to prison. She found his social media accounts and saw what his life had become in prison.
He had earned college credits, started programs for young people, and launched a podcast to share his story.
In a prison foster-cat program, Garcia adopted a calico, named her Lil Mama, and fed her until the name stopped fitting. “It’s not Lil Mama now,” he said in a recent interview. “It’s Fat Mama.”
Prison reform advocate Carisia Magobet shows photos of her husband, Matthew Garcia, who is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder, at her home in Northeast Philadelphia.Sarah Silbiger / For The Inquirer
The orange-and-black foster fail appeared often in Instagram photos. In one, a full-bearded Garcia wrote: “Me and Lil Mama, patiently waiting on our moment.”
By then, Magobet had four children, a house, a dental office she managed by day, and a commercial cleaning business she ran at night. Yet she found herself thinking often about Garcia. Seeing him there — older, broader, smiling beside a chubby cat — made him less a memory and more real. She emailed him.
Not long after, she took over his social media accounts.
Together, they began building a growing audience for Garcia’s work, a network of supporters, and, eventually, a life that felt shared despite the prison walls that separated them.
She posted his poetry. She built a website explaining the Lee case and a guide to contacting lawmakers about sentencing reform. He wrote children’s books, including one about Lil Mama that Magobet’s 21-year-old daughter, a digital arts student, illustrated.
A chance for ‘FREEDOM’
Garcia proposed on Aug. 1, three months after they reconnected. But it didn’t feel fast to Magobet. She had been carrying that moment since the wedding party.
They wed on Aug. 23. She is still waiting on prison paperwork to make it legal. But to them, Magobet said, it’s official.
Matthew Garcia and Lil Mama.Courtesy of Carisia Magobet.
He calls at least four times each day — when his cell door opens at 7 a.m., at lunch, after his work shift at the prison’s reentry program, at night. Each call lasts 15 minutes, the maximum allowed under prison policy, plus six video calls and four in-person visits a month.
On a video call last month, the couple discussed Magobet’s plan to join other families, formerly incarcerated people, and advocates in Harrisburg to support legislation in response to the high court’s decision that would allow people like Garcia to seek parole after serving at least 25 years. Not guaranteed release, but a chance to make their case.
She told him about a poster she had printed to bring, with a photo of him holding Lil Mama and “FREEDOM” written in all capital letters. She had ordered a custom T-shirt, too, but it had not arrived yet.
“Will it come in time for Monday” for the trip to the Capitol? Garcia asked.
The call cut out before she could answer.
‘Do your job and legislate’
Carisia Magobet participates in a rally at the state Capitol in Harrisburg.Kalim A. Bhatti / For The Inquirer
Magobet wore the T-shirt to Harrisburg two days later.
Beneath the Capitol rotunda, Magobet met Saleem Holbrook, the executive director of the Abolitionist Law Center, which represented Lee before the Supreme Court. He told Magobet he knew Garcia from their years in prison together.
“If there’s a person who’s earned being able to come home,” he said, “it’s Matt.”
In State Rep. Nikki Rivera’s office, Magobet read a speech from her phone. Her voice broke only once, when she told Rivera (D., Lancaster) that Garcia was her husband.
In the lobby of House Majority Leader Matt Bradford’s office, Magobet joined several others in a chant — “the time is getting late, do your job and legislate!” — that prompted the Montgomery County Democrat’s chief of staff to take Magobet and another person back to her office. The staffer had listened, Magobet said, promised nothing, and blamed the other side.
But Lil Mama made her laugh.
“The cat gets everyone,” Magobet said afterward. “We gotta get Lil Mama T-shirts for next time.”
Holding onto hope
Five weeks later, there was no next time to plan for.
Magobet learned that lawmakers adjourned July 12 without voting on the Democratic-sponsored measure she had supported, or the stricter Republican proposal.
She told Garcia on a phone call, and before the 15 minutes were up, he told her he couldn’t keep talking. It was the first time he had ever done that, she said.
A new measure, introduced by Democrats in an emergency session last week, did not earn a vote in the Senate.
The Supreme Court’s 120-day stay on new sentencings in second-degree murder cases expired on Friday, and judges can again hand out life sentences to people convicted of second-degree murder, but only in limited circumstances. But without a new law, there are no mandatory minimums or clear guidelines.
In the meantime, the next chapter will likely unfold in the courts for the more than 1,000 people already serving mandatory life sentences.
Bret Grote, an attorney with the Abolitionist Law Center who represented Lee in the Supreme Court case, said the high court has been asked in a separate case to determine whether the ruling applies retroactively.
He called the situation “a constitutional crisis.” But even under the most optimistic timeline, he said, a resolution could take years.
In the meantime, attorneys expect a wave of challenges from incarcerated people seeking relief. More than half of those serving the sentences are from Philadelphia.
Garcia said he will meet with his attorney to determine his next steps.
Prison reform advocate Carisia Magobet poses for a portrait at her home in Northeast Philadelphia.Sarah Silbiger / For The Inquirer
Magobet said she is holding on to hope — for the smaller things.
Walks together.
Coffee he brewed waiting for her in the morning.
Afternoons at a pool. (Garcia has not been in water deeper than a shower in nearly three decades.)
For months they talked about those plans as though they were approaching.
The founder of a security company in South Jersey has been charged in connection with embezzling $3 million from his business and causing a $9 million loss for a bank, U.S. Attorney Robert Frazier announced Monday.
Robert Cormier, 51, of Barrington, was arraigned on July 20 in Camden federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth A. Pascal. He was charged in an indictment filed July 8 with embezzlement by bank agent, bank fraud, money laundering, income tax evasion, and failing to collect and pay over payroll taxes.
Cormier was still in federal custody on Monday, according to court records. A federal defender representing Cormier could not be reached for comment.
A second man, Richard Eisler, 38, of Clementon, who was the deputy director for the security company, was charged in a separate indictment in connection with embezzling over $2 million from the business.
Eisler was charged with embezzlement by bank agent, money laundering, income tax evasion, and witness tampering. Eisler was arraigned on Friday in Camden federal court before Pascal and pleaded not guilty, court records show. Eisler was released on $100,000 unsecured bail.
The lawyer representing Eisler could not be reached for comment Monday.
In 2017, Cormier started Erigere Rapidus Solutions, Inc. (ERS), a security services business based in Westville, prosecutors said.
On Monday, it was unclear if Erigere Rapidus Solutions was still operating as a business. The domain name used for the company’s website was available for sale.
In late 2019, ERS entered into an agreement with a local bank to collect, count, transport, store, and deposit cash, prosecutors said.
ERS employees, including Eisler, were responsible for picking up cash from various customers of the bank, counting and storing the cash, and providing daily reports about the cash to the bank.
On a daily basis, ERS stored varying amounts of cash in its vault ranging from $1 million to $12 million, prosecutors said.
The bank ended its relationship with ERS after determining that more than $8 million was missing from the vault, prosecutors said.
Starting in 2020 until 2022, Cormier allegedly stole at least $3 million in cash out of the vault, prosecutors said.
Cormier, who was the company’s chief operating officer, allegedly used the embezzled funds to cover business-related costs and to pay personal expenses for himself and his family members, including the installation of a deck and a pool, and household renovations, prosecutors said.
He allegedly failed to report the extra income to the Internal Revenue Service and did not collect and pay over payroll taxes for employees of ERS, prosecutors said.
From 2020 until late 2021, Eisler allegedly stole at least $2 million from the vault, prosecutors said.
Eisler allegedly used the embezzled funds to pay personal expenses for himself and his family members, including the purchase of a Porsche 911, two Audis, two trucks, and a recreational vehicle, prosecutors said.
He also allegedly used the money to pay for wedding rings, a wedding reception, and a roof for his residence, and to pay off an automobile loan, prosecutors said. Eisler allegedly failed to report the income to the IRS.
Prosecutors also allege that Eisler attempted to obstruct the investigation by attempting to persuade a witness to lie to federal agents.
An off-duty Philadelphia police officer who authorities say shot and killed his uncle in Northampton County during the weekend contended he did so in self-defense, according to court documents.
Cummings told troopers he had fired at Moncrieffe because he feared the man was reaching for his concealed firearm during a domestic confrontation, according to an affidavit of probable cause in his arrest.
Investigators say Cummings shot Moncrieffe six times in the head with a 9mm handgun during the confrontation at a residence on Old Gate Road.
Cummings is a two-year veteran of the force. He has an entry-level rank and serves on the Kensington detail, where he is paid a salary of $79,259, public records show.
Cpl. Jasmine Reilly, a police spokesperson, said Monday that the department’s internal affairs bureau has opened an inquiry into Cummings. She referred further questions to state police, who are overseeing the criminal investigation.
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Bethlehem did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The conflict began Friday around 1:30 p.m., when Cummings confronted his uncle at the home after a young family member told the off-duty officer that Moncrieffe had verbally threatened him, according to court documents.
After Cummings entered the residence, other family members saw the two men begin to struggle, with Moncrieffe shoving Cummings as he tried to stand up, the documents said.
The young family member — a juvenile whom police did not identify — then approached Moncrieffe and punched him multiple times in the face, the documents said. He later told investigators that the escalation led Moncrieffe to “square up with him.”
That’s when Cummings drew his weapon and fired at Moncrieffe, striking him in the head, the documents said. Moncrieffe slumped to the floor, and Cummings shot him again in the head before fleeing the property.
Cummings was arrested that afternoon after leading troopers on a chase through the Lehigh Valley community, at points traveling more than 100 mph through residential areas as he evaded law enforcement in an orange 2023 Kia Forte, according to the documents.
The pursuit ended back at Moncrieffe’s home, where Cummings surrendered his firearm and was taken into custody without further resistance, authorities said.
He is being held in the Northampton County jail without bail and is set to appear before District Judge Jordan A. Knisley on Aug. 8.
Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.
A woman was killed by a hit-and-run driver in the Eastwick section early Monday morning just seconds after having exited a rideshare vehicle.
Talyia Bernice Nesmith, 29, of Philadelphia, was exiting a rideshare vehicle just before 3:30 a.m. on the 7200 block of Elmwood Avenue, police said, when someone driving a black Dodge Charger at high speed struck her. Nesmith had just exited a rideshare vehicle and was attempting to cross Elmwood Avenue, police said.
Nesmith was struck with so much force that she was thrown into the rear of a nearby unoccupied parked car. After striking Nesmith, the driver of the Dodge Charger continued east, striking another parked car before fleeing without stopping, according to police.
Police responded to the scene at 3:30 a.m. for reports of a multi-vehicle crash involving a pedestrian. Philadelphia Fire Department medics took Nesmith to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was declared dead at 4:05 a.m.
A stock image of a high-performance black Dodge Charger, the same model of car police believe was used in a fatal hit-and-run on Monday morning which left 29-year-old Talyia Bernice Nesmith dead.(Courtesy of Philadelphia Police Department)
The driver of the black Dodge Charger has not been identified. Police initially believed the car to be a Dodge SRT, but later said they were looking for a black 2020-2023 Dodge Charger Hellcat or Scat Pack Wide Body — two high-performance versions of the standard Charger model. The vehicle may have damage to the passenger side and possible damage to the windshield. It was last seen traveling east on Elmwood Avenue.
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The number of hit-and-run crashes, like the one that killed Nesmith, has fallen in Eastwick in recent years, according to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation data. There were nine hit-and-runs in 2025, down from 15 in 2023. But since 2019, nearly 100 hit-and-run crashes occurred in the neighborhood, resulting in 84 people injured and four deaths.
The police Crash Investigation Division is investigating the case. Anyone with information can submit an anonymous tip by calling the police department’s tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477). Tips can also be submitted electronically at phillypolice.com/tips.
An off-duty Philadelphia police officer has been charged in connection with a fatal shooting this weekend in Northampton County, according to Pennsylvania State Police.
Kenroy Cummings, 25, faces charges of criminal homicide and attempting to elude an officer in connection with the killing of a 27-year-old man.
Troopers found the man suffering from gunshot wounds, and he was taken to a local hospital where he died. His identity has not been made public.
The alleged shooter fled in an orange Kia, which authorities later spotted in Hanover Township. After a brief car pursuit, the suspect returned to the residence and was taken into custody, state police said.
Cummings did not immediately appear in court records, and it was unclear if he had an attorney.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department said the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau had been notified and an investigation was initiated.
A Nigerian man who helped launder money in the twisted online extortion of a Montgomery County college student — a plot that led the 20-year-old to kill himself by walking in front of a train — was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison.
Afeez Olatunji Adewale, 27, was one of two men who helped collect money and mask its source while a third man orchestrated the tormenting of Abington native Jack Sullivan, prosecutors said.
The scheme took place on social media in 2023, when one of the co-defendants, Imoleayo Samuel Aina, began communicating with Sullivan using fake social media accounts under the moniker “Alice Dave.” Aina, posing as the woman, convinced Sullivan, a student at Kutztown University, to share intimate photos of himself, and then demanded money to keep the images private.
Sullivan ultimately turned over more than $3,000, prosecutors said, and Adewale helped try to hide the source of those funds, including by having money sent to what they called “compromised American banking accounts” as well as accounts in Nigerian banks.
But on Jan. 4, 2023, only about 18 hours after Aina had begun messaging Sullivan, the harassment reached a tragic end.
Aina reached out to Sullivan to demand more money, prosecutors said, but Sullivan sent a message back saying: “I don’t think I have enough for it.”
Three minutes later, prosecutors said, he walked onto the tracks near the Jenkintown SEPTA station, where he was struck and killed by a passing train.
The case is an example of what authorities have come to call “sextortion,” a crime in which perpetrators, typically based in other countries, strike up flirtatious online relationships with victims, primarily teenage boys. The harassers then try to lure their victims into sending compromising photos of themselves, and go on to demand money to keep the images private.
The FBI says the crime has skyrocketed in recent years, with more than 54,000 cases reported in 2024, a 60% increase from the year before. And authorities believe the crime is undercounted because many victims feel shame and embarrassment about what happened.
The men involved in Sullivan’s harassment were purportedly associated with the so-called Yahoo Boys, a network of West African scammers who use the internet to try to swindle people out of money.
Adewale was arrested in Nigeria three years ago, and, after being extradited to the United States, pleaded guilty earlier this spring to wire fraud and money laundering charges.
In court Friday, he cried while apologizing to Sullivan’s relatives, saying he didn’t know the money he was trying to launder had been collected as part of a sextortion scheme, and that he wishes he’d never taken part in it.
“I didn’t wish for this to happen,” he said. “I’ll never do anything like this again.”
Sullivan’s parents, meanwhile, said Adewale played a key role in their son’s torment, and that his crimes had robbed them of a future with a young man who was caring, curious, and thoughtful.
“He was a beacon of light in any room he would enter,” said his father, Jim.
Adewale’s co-defendants were sentenced last year: Aina, the plot’s mastermind, was ordered to serve six years in prison, while Samuel Olasunkanmi Abiodun, another money launderer, was sentenced to five years behind bars.
In imposing a five-year sentence on Adewale, U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky said it was “astounding” that cybercrimes committed a continent away could have fatal consequences in the United States.
“The damage done to a family by these kinds of crimes,” he said, “is incalculable.”
The Pennsylvania Court of Discipline ended Michael Fanning’s suspension without pay Thursday because the only reason for it was the criminal charges against him.
“With no charges and no other reason cited for the suspension of Judge Fanning, no reason exists for that suspension to continue,” the order said.
Fanning, 60, will be assigned administrative duty and will not hear cases until the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas leadership can decide his future assignment, said court spokesperson Martin O’Rourke.
His request to end the stay did not mention backpay.
The administrative office of Pennsylvania courts did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Fanning would receive back pay for the four months he was suspended.
Fortunato Perri Jr., Fanning’s attorney, declined to comment.
Fanning was charged with aggravated assault, strangulation, and related crimes in March after prosecutors said he repeatedly punched his wife in the face, choked her, and dragged his 30-year-old daughter to the ground by her hair, causing her to cut her face, during a fight at their East Torresdale home.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Collins said last week that the two women were evaluated by medics and did not suffer injuries.
Attorneys for Fanning also provided the district attorney’s office with “extensive mitigation” records, prosecutors told the court without describing their content.
Fanning’s wife said in a March hearing that the judge had voluntarily entered a 30-day inpatient recovery program to treat his excessive alcohol use, an issue the family had worked to address in the past.
A 15-year-old boy was charged with murder and related crimes for fatally shooting a 43-year-old man in Southwest Philadelphia earlier this month, authorities said.
Zakah Johnson, of East Mount Airy, was already in custody for an unrelated crime when police accused him Friday of killing MD Mahfuzul Haque, who investigators said was shot dead on July 7 in the city’s Kingsessing section.
Police responded to a residence on the 100 block of South Ithan Street that evening to find Haque with a gunshot wound to the back of the head.
He was pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center around 9:30 p.m.
On Thursday, police took Johnson into custody for an unrelated investigation. Before he was set to be released, authorities kept him in custody and charged him for Haque’s killing.
Johnson will be tried as an adult, police said. In addition to murder, he was charged with robbery, conspiracy, and a handful of firearms crimes.
He is being held in the Philadelphia Juvenile Detention Center and was denied bail.
Haque, a native of Bangladesh, had been delivering food for DoorDash at the time of the shooting, investigators said.
