Federal Courts and Justice Department

Federal prosecutors in Hawaii say former Canadian flight attendant Dallas Pokornik, 33, used fake airline employee identification to pose as a commercial pilot and current crew member and obtain hundreds of free flights from U.S. airlines over a four‑year period. Pokornik, who worked for a Toronto‑based carrier from 2017 to 2019, is accused of reusing forged IDs from that airline to book tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three U.S. carriers headquartered in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas, and at least once asked to sit in the cockpit “jump seat” reserved for off‑duty pilots. A federal grand jury in Hawaii indicted him on wire‑fraud charges in October 2023, and he was recently arrested in Panama, extradited to the United States and on Tuesday pleaded not guilty in Honolulu federal court; a magistrate judge ordered him held pending trial. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and supervised release. While court documents do not state whether he ever actually rode in the cockpit, the alleged scheme raises fresh questions about how easily employee‑travel and jump‑seat privileges can be abused in an era when aviation security is supposed to be tightly controlled.

A federal grand jury has indicted William D. DeFoor, 26, of Cincinnati on three counts over the Jan. 5 vandalism of Vice President JD Vance’s home in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood. Prosecutors allege a Secret Service team saw DeFoor run along the front fence after midnight, breach the property line armed with a hammer, try to smash the window of an unmarked Secret Service vehicle, then move toward the front of the residence and shatter 14 historic window panes, causing about $28,000 in damage to security reinforcements. The indictment charges him with damaging government property, engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds, and assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers, carrying potential penalties of up to 10 years on each of the first two counts and up to 20 years on the third. A federal judge has ordered DeFoor held without bond pending trial, while earlier state‑level vandalism and trespass charges were dropped Friday as the case shifted fully into federal court. DeFoor’s lawyer has framed the episode as a "purely mental health issue" and said it was not politically motivated, and Vance has publicly thanked the Secret Service and Cincinnati police while calling the suspect "clearly a very sick individual" and declining to ascribe a motive.