A judge cleared the way Thursday for a disciplinary trial to begin next week for the white New York City police officer accused in the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man whose pleas of "I can't breathe" became a rallying cry against police brutality. Judge Joan Madden rejected Officer Daniel Pantaleo's contention that a police watchdog agency lacked jurisdiction to bring the case because its investigation started with a complaint from a woman who claimed to be a witness but gave a questionable account of what happened.

The reputed boss of New York's Gambino crime family was shot to death in front of his home by a gunman who may have staged a car accident to lure him outside, dying a virtual unknown compared with his swaggering 1980s-era predecessor, John Gotti. Police said Thursday they were reviewing surveillance-camera video of the attack on Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali, 53, who was gunned down Wednesday night at his red-brick colonial-style house in a quiet Staten Island neighborhood. The assailant sped off in a pickup truck, police said. No immediate arrests were made.

Activists and others who were disappointed by the outcome of two historic cases involving the killing of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a white Chicago police officer see a way forward — by turning tragedy into political power. A judge on Friday sentenced former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke to less than seven years in prison for McDonald's 2014 death at the age of 14.

Police say a Connecticut woman charged with driving under the influence was drunk on vanilla extract, which contains a significant amount of alcohol. Officers found several bottles of pure vanilla extract inside her vehicle.

Hawaii says a judge should compel Airbnb to hand over 10 years of receipts and other documents from its hosts because the home-sharing platform has acknowledged that hosts aren't fully complying with state tax laws. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

A body found in the yard of a Port Richey home on Sunday is a missing woman whose parents and brother were found murdered at their home in Tarpon Springs on New Year's Day, according to relatives and the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. Jamie Ivancic, 21, lived at the Port Richey home with her husband Shelby Svensen, who is a suspect in the murder of Ivancic's three relatives. She may have been killed months earlier, relatives said.

Kevin Spacey made an unusual appearance Monday at a Massachusetts courthouse where his attorney asked for a swift trial in the groping case against the actor, saying Spacey is "suffering" as he awaits a chance to clear his name. Attorney Alan Jackson called the case alleging the former "House of Cards" star groped a young man in a Nantucket bar in 2016 "ridiculous" and accused prosecutors of withholding information from the defense. Jackson pushed for a trial date for this summer, but the judge said the earliest it could happen is in the fall.

A New Mexico couple arrested in an abuse case marked by allegations of child beatings and tortured pets can be released on bond, a magistrate judge ruled Wednesday. Martha and Timothy Crouch made initial court appearances Wednesday. She is charged with child abuse and extreme cruelty to animals on accusations she struck and bruised a teenage daughter, shot the girl's dog as a way to punish her, and boiled puppies while children watched.

A media circus is expected in federal court in Boston on Wednesday when the two most high-profile defendants in the college admissions scandal — Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin — appear in court. The preliminary hearing in which the actresses will face charges against them for the first time will mark a key moment for the actresses.

A Connecticut woman who claimed it was God's plan for her to kill her two children was convicted of murder Friday by a three-judge panel that rejected her insanity defense. The guilty verdicts against LeRoya Moore, 39, came after a trial that featured conflicting testimony by psychiatrists for the state and defense about whether Moore was in a psychotic state during the 2015 killings at the family's home in East Haven.