Singer D4vd, pronounced “David,” is about to face a preliminary hearing where a judge will decide whether he should go to trial in connection with the killing and dismembering of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. At the hearing planned for Friday, witnesses will be called and evidence will be presented. Lawyers for the 21-year-old singer whose legal name is David Anthony Burke say he is not guilty. Rivas Hernandez's body was discovered in a towed Tesla registered to Burke in the Hollywood Hills last year. He has been charged with first-degree murder and other felony counts.

Lawyers for singer D4vd are pushing prosecutors to reveal their evidence in the case of Celeste Rivas Hernandez's killing. A judge has set a hearing for next week to present the evidence publicly. D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, appeared in court in jail clothes Thursday. He's pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Prosecutors say they have extensive evidence, including sensitive child sex abuse images from Burke's phone. The defense argues the evidence will prove Burke's innocence. The dismembered body of Rivas Hernandez was found in a car registered to Burke. The hearing will determine if there's enough evidence for a trial.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday. Timothy Hudson was indicted on March 10. But the entire case was sealed until Friday, weeks after a judge said he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of prosecutors. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November with her family. Before the ship was scheduled to return to Florida, her body was found concealed under a bed in a room.

After Pam Bondi became U.S. attorney general last year, conservative influencers, online sleuths and others who wanted the government to disclose all it knew about Jeffrey Epstein thought they might have a champion in the Department of Justice. So did some of the legions of women who have said they were sexually assaulted by the late financier and convicted sex offender with a roster of powerful friends in business, politics and beyond. But Bondi's handling of the “Epstein files” became a stubbornly problematic storyline that ran through her time as attorney general. Bondi rejected criticism of her handling of the issue, and Trump on Thursday praised her as “a Great American Patriot.”

A federal judge in New York has tossed out Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims against Justin Baldoni over the movie “It Ends With Us" but left intact claims for retaliation. The written ruling by Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan was released late Thursday. Lively will still be allowed to put many of her allegations before a jury. Her lawyer says she looks forward to testifying. Lively sued Baldoni last December, alleging sexual harassment. Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios countersued Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. The judge dismissed Baldoni’s claims in June.

The founder of a Texas megachurch who resigned after pleading guilty to sexually abusing an Oklahoma woman in the 1980s has been released from an Oklahoma jail. Osage County officials say 64-year-old Robert Preston Morris was released early Tuesday. He served six months after pleading guilty last year to five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. Under the agreement, he received a 10-year suspended sentence and must register as a sex offender. He also was ordered to pay his incarceration costs and restitution to the victim. Prosecutors say the abuse began in 1982 when the victim was 12 and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying in Hominy, Oklahoma.

Sexual abuse allegations against the revered labor leader César Chavez have led to a swift fallout, leaving many to reconcile the legacy of a man who fought tirelessly for the rights of farmworkers. Latino leaders and community leaders have quickly condemned the alleged abuse by Chavez. Now they are weighing the impact of his actions on the labor rights movement and how to move forward acknowledging Chavez actions and the impact he had on Latino civil rights. Reconciling with a tainted legacy is something various civil rights groups have had to as accusations and rumors are unearthed. For many Chavez’s reckoning is an example of why movements should not be tied to one person.