Judge sets $60K bond for Florida congresswoman accused of stealing $5M in COVID-19 funds

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Judge sets $60K bond for Florida congresswoman accused of stealing $5M in COVID-19 funds

2025-11-26 07:25 Last Updated At：07:30

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Miami set a $60,000 bond Tuesday for U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who made her first appearance in court on charges of conspiring to steal $5 million in federal disaster funds meant to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

The Florida Democrat is facing 15 federal counts that accuse her of stealing funds that had been overpaid to her family's health care company, Trinity Healthcare Services, prosecutors alleged. The company had a contract to register people for COVID-19 vaccinations.

Cherfilus-McCormick stood with her attorneys as Judge Enjoliqué Lett read all 15 charges, the South Florida SunSentinel reported. She told the judge she is aware of the charges she faces.

She said in a statement sent to the AP that she plans to fight for her constituents.

“Today I made my initial appearance in a case that is both politically timed and politically motivated,” Cherfilus-McCormick said in the statement. “Let me be clear: I am innocent and I look forward to my day in court. This has been a fight not just for my name — it's a fight for my constituents, an attack on the progress we have been making and the movement we have started.”

She said she will not be “intimidated or silenced.”

In addition to bail, the judge said Cherfilus-McCormick must surrender her personal passport, and she is restricted from traveling to and from Florida from anywhere other than Washington, D.C., Maryland and the Eastern District of Virginia.

The congresswoman will be allowed to retain her congressional passport so she can do certain duties for her job.

In a federal indictment unsealed earlier this month, prosecutors claimed that within two months of receiving the funds in 2021, more than $100,000 had been spent to purchase a 3-carat yellow diamond ring for the congresswoman.

The health care company owned by Cherfilus-McCormick's family had received payments through a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract, the indictment said. Her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, requested $50,000, but they mistakenly received $5 million and didn't return the difference.

Cherfilus-McCormick has denied the charges, through her attorney, David Oscar Markus.

Prosecutors said the funds received by Trinity Healthcare were distributed to various accounts, including to friends and relatives who then donated to Cherfilus-McCormick's campaign for Congress.

Cherfilus-McCormick won a special election in January 2022 to represent Florida’s 20th District, which includes parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, after Rep. Alcee Hastings died in 2021.

The charges she faces include theft of government funds; making and receiving straw donor contributions; aiding and assisting a false and fraudulent statement on a tax return; and money laundering, as well as conspiracy charges associated with each of those counts.

According to a statement provided by the congresswoman's chief of staff, she doesn't plan to resign from office and maintains her innocence. She said she has cooperated with “every lawful request” and will continue to do so until the matter is resolved.

Payne, who reported from Tallahassee, Florida, is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Police search Brown University after shooter kills 2 and wounds 8 on campus

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded eight others at Brown University on Saturday during final exams on the Ivy League campus, authorities said, and police were searching for the suspect.

Officers scattered across the campus and into an affluent neighborhood filled with historic and stately brick homes, searching academic buildings, backyards and porches for hours after the shooting erupted.

The suspect was a male in dark clothing who was last seen leaving the engineering building where the attack happened, said Timothy O’Hara, Deputy Chief of Police.

Authorities believe the shooter used a handgun, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rhode Island has some of the strictest gun laws in the U.S. Last spring the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed an assault weapon ban that will prohibit the sale and manufacturing of certain high-powered firearms, but not their possession, starting next July.

“The unthinkable has happened,” Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said a shelter-in-place was in effect and encouraged people living near the campus to stay inside and not to return home until it is lifted.

“We have all available resources” to find the suspect, Smiley said.

Emma Ferraro, a chemical engineering student, was in the engineering building’s lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops coming from the east side.

Once she realized they were gunshots, she darted for the door and ran to a nearby building where she was waited for a couple of hours.

Eight people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where six were in critical but stable condition, according to Kelly Brennan, a spokesperson for the hospital. Another was in critical condition and one was stable, she said.

University officials initially told students and staff that a suspect was in custody, before later saying that was not the case. The mayor said a person preliminarily thought to be involved was detained but was later determined to have no involvement.

Nearly five hours after the shooting, officers in tactical gear led students out of some campus buildings and into a fitness center.

The shooting occurred in the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. According to the university’s website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices.

Engineering design exams were underway there when the shooting occurred.

Brown senior biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm directly across the street from the building when he heard sirens outside and received a text about an active shooter shortly after 4 p.m.

“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as a half-dozen armed officers in tactical gear surrounded his dorm. He said he feared for a friend who he thought was inside the engineering building at the time.

Students in a nearby lab hid under desks and turned off the lights after receiving an alert about the shooting, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about a block away from the scene.

Mari Camara, 20, a junior from New York City, was coming out of the library and rushed inside a taqueria to seek shelter. She spent more than three hours there, texting friends while police searched the campus.

“Everyone is the same as me, shocked and terrified that something like this happened,” she said.

President Donald Trump told reporters that he had been briefed on the shooting and “all we can do right now is pray for the victims.”

“It’s a shame,” he said in brief remarks at the White House.

The FBI said it was assisting in the response.

Brown, the seventh oldest higher education institution in the U.S., is one of the nation's most prestigious colleges, with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. Tuition, housing and other fees run to nearly $100,000 per year, according to the university.

Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Mike Balsamo and Seung Min Kim in Washington; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; Martha Bellisle in Seattle; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.