GOLETA, Calif. (KEYT) – A Santa Barbara County Sheriff's deputy was stabbed early Friday during a call in the 4500 block of Hollister Avenue in Goleta.

Deputy Fabian Flores suffered a stab wound to his upper chest area and was treated for non-life threatening injuries at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital shared the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office in a press release Friday.

On March 20, around 12:05 a.m., deputies were dispatched to the La Posada interim housing community in the 4500 block of Hollister Avenue after a man called dispatchers and indicated he intended to harm someone stated the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

The caller disconnected and then called back minutes later to repeat the threat added the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies arrived at the scene around 12:13 a.m., and located the man, later identified as 35-year-old Abu Bakr Sugich, at the northeast corner of the property where he appeared to be in an agitated state detailed the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, Sugich briefly walked away while deputies were attempted to de-escalate the situation before approaching a deputy, producing a black hunting-style knife, and stabbing Deputy Fabian Flores in the upper chest.

Deputies were able to stop Sugich's attack and place him in handcuffs and provided immediate medical aid to the bleeding deputy at the scene shared the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

Deputy Flores was transported from the scene to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and received sutures explained the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

He was later released and is recovering at home added the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

Sugich was arrested and booked on multiple felonies including attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon and he remains in custody with bail set at $1 million noted the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

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Por Maria Santana, CNN en Español

Los abogados de Nicolás Maduro y su esposa, Cilia Flores, presentaron el jueves una nueva moción ante la corte federal de Nueva York en la que insisten en que se desestimen los cargos de narcoterrorismo y cuestionan directamente los argumentos del Gobierno de Estados Unidos en el caso, a menos de una semana de la próxima audiencia fijada para el 26 de marzo.

El documento, firmado por Barry Pollack, representante de Maduro, y Mark Donnelly, abogado de Flores, responde a la oposición de los fiscales federales, quienes calificaron de “extraordinaria” la solicitud de permitir que el Gobierno venezolano pague su defensa legal.

En esta nueva presentación, la defensa plantea que el propio Gobierno de EE.UU. ha hecho concesiones clave que, según ellos, deberían inclinar el caso a su favor.

Pollack y Donnelly sostienen que los fiscales no han negado dos puntos centrales: que Maduro y Flores no tienen recursos personales para pagar su defensa y que, bajo la ley venezolana, el Estado debe cubrir esos costos. También afirman que el Gobierno ha reconocido que en otros casos se ha permitido que terceros sancionados paguen honorarios legales.

Con base en eso, argumentan que la decisión de la Oficina de Control de Activos Extranjeros (OFAC) de bloquear los pagos desde Venezuela interfiere directamente con el derecho de los acusados a elegir a sus abogados, protegido por la Constitución. Añaden que obligarlos a aceptar un abogado designado por el tribunal no soluciona el problema, sino que lo agrava. “La única solución es la desestimación del caso”, afirman Pollack y Donelly.

Por su parte, los fiscales federales pidieron al juez rechazar la solicitud. Argumentan que las regulaciones de OFAC prohíben que un gobierno sancionado pague los honorarios legales de personas también sancionadas y que los acusados sí pueden acceder a fondos propios, por lo que, según ellos, no se les niega el derecho a la defensa.

También sostienen que permitir que el Gobierno venezolano financie esa defensa podría implicar riesgos para la seguridad nacional y la política de sanciones de Estados Unidos al involucrar recursos controlados por un gobierno sancionado. Además, insisten en que bloquear esos pagos no constituye una violación constitucional y reiteran que las licencias iniciales fueron otorgadas por un “error administrativo”.

La defensa, sin embargo, rechaza esos argumentos y pide al juez, como mínimo, una audiencia para obligar al Gobierno a explicar lo que consideran contradicciones en su postura.

Pollack y Donnelly cuestionan por qué OFAC autorizó inicialmente los pagos y luego revocó la licencia, y señalan que la explicación ha cambiado. Mientras que en su momento se vinculó la decisión a consideraciones de política exterior tras consultas con el Departamento de Estado, ahora los fiscales la describen como un “error administrativo”.

También descartan el argumento de seguridad nacional y aseguran que el Gobierno no ha explicado de forma concreta por qué permitir estos pagos representaría un riesgo, especialmente cuando se han autorizado otras transacciones con fondos venezolanos, incluso en contextos legales y comerciales.

El mes pasado, la defensa de Maduro pidió desestimar la acusación al alegar que el Gobierno estadounidense interfirió con su derecho a elegir abogado al bloquear el pago de su defensa con fondos de Venezuela. Posteriormente, Cilia Flores se

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge on Friday voided various parts of a restrictive press policy rolled out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year, ruling that they trampled on the constitutional rights of reporters who seek to cover the US military from within its sprawling headquarters.

The ruling from senior US District Judge Paul Friedman is a major blow to Hegseth’s effort to exert greater control over press coverage and comes as reporting on the Defense Department has ramped up amid the war in Iran and the US operation earlier this year in Venezuela.

It voids several provisions of the new policy that enabled the Pentagon to suspend or revoke credentials based on reporting, but leaves in place other parts of the policy that had been in effect in earlier iterations and were not subject to the legal challenge.

“A primary purpose of the First Amendment is to enable the press to publish what it will and the public to read what it chooses, free of any official proscription,” Friedman, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote.

“Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation’s security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech,” the judge added. “That principle has preserved the nation’s security for almost 250 years. It must not be abandoned now.”

The New York Times challenged the policy late last year, arguing it violates its First Amendment and due process rights.

The parts of the policy Friedman struck down required beat reporters to sign a pledge not to obtain or use unauthorized material. Scores of news organizations, including the Times and CNN, declined to agree, resulting in reporters being denied press badges that give them access to the Pentagon.

“The Court recognizes that national security must be protected, the security of our troops must be protected, and war plans must be protected,” Friedman wrote. “But especially in light of the country’s recent incursion into Venezuela and its ongoing war with Iran, it is more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is doing – so that the public can support government policies, if it wants to support them; protest, if it wants to protest; and decide based on full, complete, and open information who they are going to vote for in the next election.”

CNN has reached out to the Defense Department and New York Times for comment.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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