I started the Bad Lawyer blawg in August of 2009 as my career, reputation, and life seemed to collapse. Well, the first two collapsed, amazingly with friends and family the latter did not. As painful as it has been this may prove to be the "good old days," I just need to learn to accept.
At that time I wrote because I was unable to sleep or get any relief from an abysmal depression and panic attacks I was suffering as I fearfully grappled with my disasters and the consequences caused by my conduct. So in large part I wrote in a pathetic bit of self-pitying and as I was often accused by certain commentators, rationalization.
In the last two years I documented the course of my disciplinary process (although not completely because I'm still in the midst of it), my legal proceedings, my prison sentence for attempted tax evasion, my probation and finally my return to work. As I write I do not know if I will ever be reinstated as a lawyer. I don't want to be grandiose, but I did view the law as a calling, one that I often loved as an advocate, hated as a unwilling businessman, but was privileged to practice from November 1982 till December of 2009. As we say in AA, I've "turned that over," the question of reinstatement although I am forever indebted to the amazing attorney, Lester, who has done so much for me, pro bono, to try to help me through these thickets.
I liked "blawging" because it offered me a soapbox to try to be socially relevant despite my situation. You should never doubt that the stories I posted about "bad" lawyers, judges, doctors, drivers, parents, idiots, and morons--these stories, were always about ME. Likewise, I posted the occasional story about admirable persons in and out of the law, these were stories also about me, as well. Or rather, I should say the stories were about--who I aspire to be by the grace of God.
I have some other things, other projects, and a life with my family to live. I'm now letting go of the "past" absolutely.
Thank you for reading and commenting on Bad Lawyer. There are a lot of great law blawgs: ABAJournal, Above the Law (when they remember that the law is mostly not "big law"), Simple Justice, Grits for Breakfast, How Appealing, Point of Law, the Agitator, Overlawyered, Injustice Everywhere, the WSJ Law Blog, and many others which I plan to continue to follow and comment at, in my nom de guerre, Bad Lawyer. Maybe I'll chat with you along the road.
Good bye.
ADSENSE HERE
How Not to Behave at Your Sentencing
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This video come by way of Syracuse.com; at the link you can read an excellent "print" report.
Generally speaking the sort of conduct at your sentencing shown in the video will not advantage you in anyway in your path through the justice system. Conduct like this is, also, not likely to improve the conditions or your incarceration or put you on a fast path to parole or alternative sentencing.
What an asshole. ADSENSE HERE
How Are Illegal Drugs Valued?
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U.S. Border Patrol agents foiled two drug smuggling attempts over the weekend resulting in the seizure of $676,880 worth of cocaine, crystal methamphetamine and marijuana.
The first seizure occurred about 3:20 a.m. Saturday when agents at the Interstate 8 checkpoint near Pine Valley stopped two men in a 1980 Chevrolet Camaro. The men, 36 and 25 years old, were from Mexico but legally in the United States.
With the help of a police dog, agents discovered in the Camaro nearly 41 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $409,400 and about 9 pounds of crystal methamphetamine worth an estimated $164,700. The men were taken into custody and their car was seized, agent Scott Simon said.
The second seizure occurred about 12:15 a.m. Sunday at the I-8 checkpoint when agents stopped a 36-year-old U.S. citizen driving a 1993 Toyota 4 Runner. The driver appeared to be extremely nervous, so his truck was referred for a secondary inspection.
Agents searched the vehicle and discovered metal casings in all four tires and 24 black-taped bundles of marijuana. The marijuana totaled about 171 pounds and was worth an estimated $102,780. The suspected smuggler was taken into custody and his truck was seized, Simon said.
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I'm dubious about how law enforcement sets these valuations. I wonder whether there has ever been a rigorous study on this issues. I mean since we all know that law enforcement is nothing but a bunch of sweethearts who are invariable filled with proper levels of righteous integrity in all that they do for us, can we trust their numbers? Is there ever any exaggeration? A wee bit? Maybe? ADSENSE HERE
Would You Convict Romeo In the Murder of Tybalt?
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Shocking Verdict: TASER hit for $10 Million
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A federal jury in Charlotte, North Carolina awarded $10 million in the death of a local teen. Here's reporter Doug Miller's account at the Charlotte Observer:
A federal jury has ordered Taser International Inc. to pay $10 million to the family of a 17-year-old Charlotte teenager who died after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer struck him with a Taser.
The incident happened in March 2008 at a Food Lion in northeast Charlotte.
Police at the time said the officer violated policy when he shocked Darryl Turner (pic) for about 37 seconds, contributing to the teen's death. Turner fell to the floor during the confrontation and died.
The jury returned its verdict Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
Lawyers for Turner's family persuaded jurors that the manufacturer knew the product could cause heart problems if it struck near the heart but failed to warn customers, the newspaper reported.
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Great. Go after TASER Inernational and the Boys who think they need these toys as often as merited. While I don't think this weapon should be unavailable to law enforcement TASERS should be used rarely. In other words current usage levels are out of control. These are dangerous, often fatal weapons too often deployed by knuckleheads with badges. ADSENSE HERE
A federal jury has ordered Taser International Inc. to pay $10 million to the family of a 17-year-old Charlotte teenager who died after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer struck him with a Taser.
The incident happened in March 2008 at a Food Lion in northeast Charlotte.
The jury returned its verdict Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.
Lawyers for Turner's family persuaded jurors that the manufacturer knew the product could cause heart problems if it struck near the heart but failed to warn customers, the newspaper reported.
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Great. Go after TASER Inernational and the Boys who think they need these toys as often as merited. While I don't think this weapon should be unavailable to law enforcement TASERS should be used rarely. In other words current usage levels are out of control. These are dangerous, often fatal weapons too often deployed by knuckleheads with badges. ADSENSE HERE
Scott Greenfield on the "Nancy Grace Hours"
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You know you love her....just kidding. ADSENSE HERE
Coke in the Courthouse Costs Counsel 90 Days
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The Legal Profession blawg reports, this morning, on the a Twin-Cities based lawyer's Charles Ramsey's (pic) earned a 90-day suspension for Cocaine possession following his arrest in January 2009.
Ramsey was defending a murder suspect in a high profile cold case prosecution when the police investigator and lab tech noticed cocaine residue and Ramsey wandering around sniffing like he might have been tooting. Upon this suspicion other police took the CDL into custody and a search turned up 5 grams of cocaine. The criminal trial came to a screeching halt, Ramsey went to jail, and has according to the disciplinary case, successfully entered recovery for his cocaine addiction.
The client, accused murderer, Jack Nissalke, was convicted following a retrial 6 months later, now represented by different counsel. ADSENSE HERE
"Okay. Allrgiht. Thank You."
ADSENSE HERE
According to court's reporter Jim O'Hara at the Post-Standard that is in fact the decision of the Appellate court in upholding the million dollar plus verdict for Tina Holstein against Community General Hospital of Syracuse. What happened is fairly ambiguous both in Mr. O'Hara's story and in the underlying facts. But apparently after the verdict was read from the bench, the defense attorney asked that the jury be polled to determine if in fact the verdict was the verdict of each juror. The judge in response to the request said to the defense attorney--each of the jurors signed the verdict form whereupon the 5 magic words were uttered which were construed by the judge to be a waiver of the "polling."
I'm struck at the judicial scrutiny is given this "waiver" in a civil malpractice case, but the US Supreme Court confronted by repeated insistence upon having a lawyer present during an interrogation can find "a waiver" through lapse of time. I realize we're talking about "apples and oranges," but it does seem remarkable to me that we bend over backwards for wealthy corporations over something as inconsequential as polling a civil jury following a verdict, but a criminal defendant--whose life and liberty is on the line gets short shrift.
Well, really I'm not surprised. You? ADSENSE HERE
Busted By the Feds, um Because You're On Facebook, Idiot!
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If you don't want to do the time, stay offline. Or at the very least, don't “friend” your probation officer.
Convicted of possessing methamphetamine and Ecstasy, Scott W. Roby learned that the hard way. The Louisville man had his probation revoked this month — and was sentenced to two years in prison — in part for violating conditions that required him to stay alcohol-free and out of bars and liquor stores.
Roby had invited his probation officer to be his friend on Facebook, then Roby posted pictures of himself drinking — including one in which he was holding a beer while posed next to “Buddy Bat,” the mascot for the Louisville Bats, said prosecutor Dinah Koehler.
In another Facebook post, according to court records, Roby asked: “Anyone wanna go get smashed tonight one last time before the end of the Earth?”
Judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and the Kentucky Department of Corrections say that with increasing regularity, offenders on probation are losing their freedom or incurring other sanctions after posting pictures online of themselves clubbing, using “beer bongs,” posing with firearms or bragging about out-of-town trips they've made without their probation officer's permission.
Louisvillian Donnie Lee Griffith Jr., 22, for example, who also was on probation, went to prison last year on theft and burglary convictions after posting a Facebook photo in which he was holding a jar of clear liquid over a caption that said, “Moonshine rocks and so do I!”
In another post, according to court records, he reported that he was “drinking like a fish.”
Chelsea Otto, also 22, got 60 days tacked on to her 1-year sentence for cocaine possession in 2009 after she boasted that she drank “like 20 pina coladas” during an unauthorized weekend jaunt to Clearwater, Fla.
In another post, she exclaimed, “We SHUT Hotel down!” referring to a 4th Street Live! nightclub.
Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Audra Eckerle said she's revoked probation for two offenders in part for their Facebook posts in recent years, including one who brandished a firearm in violation of his probation rules. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Adams, who prosecuted Otto, said he's had a half-dozen cases in which offenders on probation incriminated themselves through social-media sites.
Probationers are required to stay away from alcohol, drugs and firearms and out of places that derive most of their revenue from alcohol sales.
The state doesn't track revocations triggered by social-media postings, but Lisa Lamb, a Corrections Department spokeswoman, said officers have used social media heavily for four years, both to find absconders and to monitor offenders on probation.
One officer, Shannon Blalock, who works out of the department's Murray office, does nothing but troll online and train other officers to do the same.
Blalock said some judges peruse social-media sites themselves, looking for violators.
Facebook indiscretionsKentucky is not the only place where offenders are getting kicked off probation for implicating themselves online.
In Connecticut, according to press accounts, a woman convicted of killing a teenager while driving drunk had three years added to her sentence in 2009, in part because she was shown posing with alcohol in virtually every picture on her Facebook page — “worshipping at the altar of alcohol, debauchery and lewd behavior,” a prosecutor said.
The ABA Journal recently reported that the first thing some criminal-defense lawyers tell clients now is to shut down their Facebook accounts.
In Jefferson County, judges and lawyers say the stunning thing is that offenders often disclose their indiscretions online even knowing their probation officer is watching.
Griffith, for example, was thrown out of a pretrial diversion program after friending his officer, Olivia Payne, then posting photos of himself out of town and drinking at nightclubs. “Get a clue, strap on yo' shoes and get your --- to the Pink Door,” he said in one post.
When Jefferson Circuit Judge Susan Schultz Gibson gave Griffith a choice of shutting down his Facebook page — or continuing it with Payne still looking over his shoulder as his friend — he chose to keep it. Then he posted a report saying he'd been arrested for drunk driving, which Payne read. That was the last straw for Gibson, who revoked Griffith's probation and sent him to prison.
Why would somebody tell on himself in what amounts to an online confession?
“That is the $100,000 question,” said Louisville attorney John Dolan, who defended Griffith.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ryane Conroy, who prosecuted him, suggested that it is a “cockiness that they won't be held accountable.”
Other lawyers chalk up such cases to sheer stupidity.
Griffith, who was released on shock probation after serving about six months behind bars, didn't respond to messages left on his Facebook page, which no longer shows him drinking.
Otto, who has moved to St. Louis, also didn't answer messages left on her now-sanitized page.
Roby is in prison and his lawyer, Scott C. Cox, said he had no comment, other than to note that his client's Facebook postings were only part of the reason his probation was revoked — as was true in some of the other revocations. Roby also was cited for failure to report to his probation officer and changing his address without notifying the officer.
The Posting 'High'
Experts on the psychology of social media, including Joseph Mazer, an assistant professor of communications at Clemson University, said it is so easy to post information online that the convenience “overrides a person's ability to critically consider the reach of social networking sites.”
Kieron O'Hara, who studies issues of trust and privacy online as a senior research fellow at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, said, “Posting is such a ‘high' that people will often ignore what they really know is their best interests.
“We shouldn't underestimate how pleasurable and addictive some people find social networking” — and that in turn causes people to “give their privacy away so cheaply,” he said in an email.
Writing last month in a blog for the Houston Chronicle — “Facebook and the 5th Amendment” — former prosecutor Murray Newman said “bad posting decisions” are more prevalent among younger defendants, who seem to think they'll be more popular among their peer group by showing how “thuggish” they are.
Postings are fair game
But Newman said Facebook confessions aren't limited to the young and foolish.
“Drunk-driving defendants of all ages seem to enjoy taking pictures of themselves at closing time looking like Keith Richards on a bender,” he wrote.
In an interview, he said, “I tell clients to consider Facebook their own personal probation officer and that it will report you for the slightest violation.”
Civil libertarians seem to have no problem with corrections officials monitoring social-media sites.
“To the extent individuals voluntarily post information on social-networking sites that are accessible to others, the use of that information to establish a violation of probation or parole is likely to withstand any claims of invasion of privacy by the poster,” Bill Sharp, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Kentucky, said in an email.
He added, however, that courts must be careful to verify the defendant really was the poster. He cited a recent decision in which the Maryland Supreme Court held that a judge improperly admitted information from a social-networking site where the only evidence that the page belonged to a witness was that it contained his birth date and photograph.
In another recent Maryland case, a judge said photographs of a man on probation for a drunk-driving death — one showing him sitting next to a nearly full bottle of rum and another next to an empty bottle — didn't on their own justify revocation, absent evidence he drank the alcohol, which he denied[.] ADSENSE HERE
Cyclist Killed in LA Road Rage Incident
A driver in an apparent road-rage incident that left a bicyclist dead in downtown Los Angeles has been released, though police say he may still be criminally charged. A 62-year-old bicyclist was killed Tuesday after being struck by one of two drivers in the midst of a dispute near 8th and Francisco streets. The crash was still under investigation.
The driver of a Chevrolet Avalanche, a 37-year-old man, was detained for questioning by police. He has since been released, with a “possibility of filing later on,” said LAPD Sgt. J. Jennerson. The driver of a Kia compact car, a 23-year-old woman, remained on the scene but was not detained, police said.
The drivers apparently had some dispute while heading north on Figueroa Street.They turned left on 8th Street, and near Francisco Street, the driver of the Avalanche tried to pass the Kia on the right. While doing so, he allegedly struck the bicyclist, police said.
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Cycling in a urban setting can be terrifying enough but to be the innocent victim of some knucklehead in the throes of road rage is sickening. I am reminded of the Dr. Thompson assault case which also came out of LA and which I blawged extensively about throughout the latter part of 2009. The former physician is now doing 8 years for his near-deadly assault on cyclists. We are targets, out there. ADSENSE HERE
Quote of the Day: "I'm not really happy about too many things with the practice of law right now."
ADSENSE HERE
Concord attorney Dan Dargon and his disbanded law firm have been ordered by the state Banking Department to pay more than $330,000 in fines and restitution for modifying mortgages without a license. But it's unclear whether the department - or the 71 clients it decided were entitled to restitution - will see any of the money.
"It's not going to happen," Dargon said yesterday. "Number one, I don't have a half a million dollars or whatever to pay. I'm 29 years old, I'm a young lawyer. I'm actually going into the Army late October. I'm not really happy about too many things with the practice of law right now."
Dargon, who started his own firm after graduating from the former Franklin Pierce Law Center in 2008, closed the doors to the North State Street business last fall as the Banking Department pursued an investigation into its practice of modifying mortgages without a state license.
The licensing requirement had only recently been enacted by the Legislature, and Dargon took the Banking Department to court over the dispute, maintaining he and his staff of 30 attorneys and paralegals were practicing law - not working as loan originators - and were therefore exempt from oversight by banking investigators. But after several days of administrative hearings last winter, a presiding officer decided Dargon and his lawyers had, in fact, broken state law by working as unlicensed loan originators, entering into "best efforts" contracts and collecting advance fees from clients.
The officer, Stephen Judge, didn't decide until the end of last month how much Dargon would be fined for the violations. He found Dargon's firm responsible for paying $129,500 in fines and $147,196 in restitution, with amounts ranging from $500 to $3,400 per client.
Judge also found Dargon individually liable for an additional $56,000 in fines.
Although his firm no longer exists, nine of Dargon's former employees are named in Judge's order and could also be liable for the fines. "If there is no firm, we're going to chase the individuals," Richard Arcand, a spokesman for the Banking Department, said yesterday.
And if no one pays, Arcand said the department will take Dargon to court for the money - "on behalf of consumers."
"We're going to be investigating the appropriate course of legal action, which could involve the attorney general or the court system," Arcand said. The order against Dargon includes a provision that if he declares bankruptcy, he will have to list in his petition each person to whom he owes restitution.
Dargon, meanwhile, said he intends to file a motion for reconsideration. If the department rejects it, he said he'll appeal to the state Supreme Court, confident that new regulations from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would lead the justices to side in his favor. New Hampshire enacted its licensing requirement for loan originators in light of the federal SAFE Act, passed in 2008 to enhance consumer protection and cut down on fraud in the mortgage industry.
Dargon, whose firm was filing loan modification requests to get clients lower monthly payments on their mortgages, has argued that the kind of work performed by attorneys at his firm isn't regulated by the SAFE Act, a position that ran contrary to the Banking Department's interpretation.
But Dargon pointed yesterday to new HUD regulations that say the licensing requirement for loan originators wasn't meant to regulate activities that constitute the practice of law by an attorney [ . . . ]
Several hundred of Dargon's clients were waiting to hear from their lenders when his firm closed last fall. A number of those clients called the Monitor, alarmed that they suddenly hadn't been able to reach their lawyers and angry that they were never informed of the firm's closure.
Dargon's conduct also prompted a former employee to file a complaint with the Attorney Discipline Office, which doesn't make grievances against attorneys public until a certain stage in its investigation. The office has issued no public decision.
Dargon yesterday maintained that he had done what he could to help the clients who hadn't heard back from their lenders, paying lawyers to represent them with the money he got from liquidating the firm's assets.
"If I was the heartless capitalist, I could have taken the money and run," he said. He said he was still upset by the way he felt the Banking Department portrayed him in court and in administrative proceedings - part of the reason he's joining the Army, he said.
"I was really insulted to have them take my reputation, use it as toilet paper," said Dargon, who heads to basic training in October and said he has lost 80 pounds in preparation for enlistment. "Part of me said, I'll show you what I'm capable of. I'm capable of selfless service."
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Scott Greenfield has a running trope over at the Simple Justice blawg relating to the various ways young attorneys find themselves over their heads. Here's another example. ADSENSE HERE
Martin Frost: Ex-Congressman, Lawyer, Proud Thief
ADSENSE HERE
Tristan Hallman a reporter for the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Dallas Morning News is marveling over ex-congressman, and lawyer, Martin Frost's admission in a Politico essay to his theft of photos from the photo morgue at the Dallas Morning News. This is what Frost had to say:
"The story about female public figures and photos is not new, unfortunately. About 40 years ago, I clerked for a terrific federal judge, Sarah Hughes (pic), who was 74 at the time. She often complained when The Dallas Morning News ran unflattering photos of her.
Judge Hughes is a significant historical figure having administered the oath of office to LBJ aboard Air Force One following the assassinatio of John F. Kennedy.
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Pretty obnoxious bit of bragging by Mr. Frost. Could cost him a disciplinary hit--not the underlying act, but the bragging about it. ADSENSE HERE
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| Martin Frost |
"The story about female public figures and photos is not new, unfortunately. About 40 years ago, I clerked for a terrific federal judge, Sarah Hughes (pic), who was 74 at the time. She often complained when The Dallas Morning News ran unflattering photos of her.
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| Judge Sarah Hughes |
This went on for a while. One day I went down to the paper’s photo morgue — where a publication’s pictures were kept on file — and I took some of the offending photos. This was before digital photographs — so once a picture was gone, it was really gone."
Judge Hughes is a significant historical figure having administered the oath of office to LBJ aboard Air Force One following the assassinatio of John F. Kennedy.
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Pretty obnoxious bit of bragging by Mr. Frost. Could cost him a disciplinary hit--not the underlying act, but the bragging about it. ADSENSE HERE
Eyewitness to Sexual Abuse
ADSENSE HERE
A worker at Creative Frontiers School claimed today she was aware of at least two instances of possible abuse in the last year at the private Citrus Heights school, including one that she says she witnessed herself involving Principal Robert B. Adams.
Irma Mertens, a 62-year-old receptionist at the school until she quit in May, said in an interview with The Bee at her home that she surprised Adams when she walked into the school's administrative office last summer and found him tending to a 7- or 8-year-old girl in a swim suit.
Mertens claims Adams did not hear her enter the office and that she saw the principal rubbing the girl and touching her in a physically and sexually inappropriate manner. Mertens said she reported the incident the next day to school administrator Cynthia Higgins but that Higgins never passed the report on to state officials or police.
Mertens' allegations first surfaced Monday in the state Department of Social Services' formal accusation against Adams. Mertens' allegations come one day after the state and Citrus Heights police shut the school down and announced they were investigating "multiple allegations of child molestation."
Police said Adams is "the focus of the investigation," but no charges have been filed. Adams did not respond to calls Monday or today, but his attorney has called the allegations "absolutely untrue."
Higgins refused to comment when visited at her Citrus Heights home this afternoon. "I do not want to talk about anything involving her at all," Higgins said.
Mertens, who is named as a witness in a complaint against the school by the state Department of Social Services, said she did not confront Adams at the time but told Higgins because, as administrator, it was her job to immediately report the incident. The state's license revocation complaint against the school indicates that Higgins did not report the allegation, and Mertens said Higgins brushed the incident aside.
Mertens said she continued to work at the facility until May, when she heard of another instance involving Adams. This time, she said in a nearly hour-long interview, she heard from a teacher that a 3-year-old student had been pulled from the school by parents after the child claimed "Mr. Bob touched my pee-pee."
"Mr. Bob" is the nickname students and parents gave Adams, who has been described by some parents as enormously popular at the school.
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Are we getting beyond denial, yet? ADSENSE HERE
The Albuquerque Chief Criminal Judge Is a Rapist?
ADSENSE HERE
District Judge Albert "Pat" Murdoch was arrested Tuesday afternoon on charges including rape. According to the arrest warrant, the charges stem from a secret video tape the prostitute made of the judge in his own bedroom.
Murdoch is the chief criminal judge in the 2nd Judicial District in Albuquerque. He is charged with criminal sexual penetration and intimidation of a witness.
The criminal complaint states undercover police received a tip of a sex tape with the judge and a prostitute. The undercover officers bought the tape from the woman and her pimp for $400. They say when they watched it they saw Judge Murdoch having sex with that prostitute.
Police say at one point on the tape Murdoch forced himself on the woman to perform oral sex on her after she told him no. Officers searched Murdoch's home, then went to District Court to arrest him.
Murdoch is being held in jail on a $50,000 bond. Police say he is being kept away from other inmates for his own safety.
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Debra Cassens Weiss includes the amazing detail that this judge sentenced a former police officer guilty of rape to probation because Judge Murdoch "reasoned that prison would be more difficult for a policeman than other rape defendants."
These stories are so disturbing, because you assume and the profession assumes that the folks in the robe are above the craziness of the rest of mankind. One of the things this blawg stands for is the reality that some pretty flawed men and women wear the robe and mete out justice. Albuquerque is waking up to that reality this morning. While we do not know the facts, look for other alleged victims to come forward as we have come to expect in many of these situations over the last couple of years. ADSENSE HERE
"Bra-Lift" Searches of Female Students, Unconstitutionally Intrusive
ADSENSE HERE
A search for pills at an alternative school that required female students to untuck their shirts and pull out their bras with their thumbs was "degrading, demeaning and highly intrusive," a divided state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
The court ruled 2-1 that Brunswick County Academy overstepped when it required the "bra-lift" search on Nov. 5, 2008. The judges mentioned several reasons for their decision, including that the tip about pills wasn't specific and that there's no indication that the underwear of male students also was searched. They also mention that a male law enforcement officer observed all the searches, regardless of the sex of the student.
"Here, despite the complete lack of any reasonable belief that any single student possessed any pills, the Academy searched all 134 of its students," said the ruling, written by Judge Cheri Beasley. "Further, the school required all of the girls to perform the 'bra lift' even if nothing revealed during the less intrusive part of the search suggested that the student was hiding contraband in her underwear."
Brunswick County schools Superintendent Edward Pruden Jr. said Tuesday the schools plan to conform their procedures with the law.
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I generally don't get too agitated by the idea that my kid is subjected to intrusive securtiy or searches--after all he goes to a large OurTown public high school. But this sort of intrustion is pretty outrageous, but we are voluntarily giving up our freedoms and liberty in exchange for the illusion of security.
At this link, the court's opinion. ADSENSE HERE
Back to the Future?
ADSENSE HERE
In fact, Goudeau continued trying to negotiate a claim for his deceased client going so far to argue that the expired-client should receive compensation for future medical expenses! Love it.
At the link, the recommendation of the Louisiana disciplinary authorities with all credit to the Legal Profession blawg. ADSENSE HERE
Penis Pump Judge Is Back in the News
ADSENSE HERE
Circumstantial Evidence of DUI Conviction Upheld by Wisconsin Supremes
Gregg B. Kandutsch was bombed when police arrested him at his wife's home in Wausau in 2006. He wasn't driving, or even in a motor vehicle, and no one saw him driving to get there. So how did prosecutors convict him of his fifth-offense drunken driving?
They relied on circumstantial evidence, the kind commonly used to prove many other crimes but extremely rare in drunken driving cases. Kandutsch appealed, but on Tuesday the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld his conviction. Kandutsch was done in by the electronic monitoring device he was wearing while on probation for other offenses. It showed he left his mother's house in Rib Mountain about 15 minutes before he was arrested in Wausau. Jurors concluded he must have driven himself there.
Kandutsch challenged the admissibility of a computer-generated report from his monitoring device, offered without expert testimony. According to the opinion, police arrested Kandutsch after his estranged wife called to say he had broken into her home. At the hospital where he was treated for injuries suffered when he broke in, Kandutsch had a 0.23 blood-alcohol level. His green van was parked near his wife's house, so police charged him with DUI.
Kandutsch argued that he had left his mother's home in Rib Mountain much earlier in the night. After he knocked on his wife's door and got no answer, he walked to the nearby Cop Shop tavern, drank a pitcher of beer and $20 worth of Southern Comfort and then tried to break in.
The supreme court agreed with the appeals court that the technology of the electonic ankle bracelet monitor was no so complex as to require an expert's testimony, noting that it has been used successfully for years without problems. The court also found that the probation agents who installed and used the home monitoring system for Kandutsch laid an adequate foundation for the evidence that he went out of range at 10:03 p.m., not 9 p.m. as he claimed.
Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson dissented, joined by Justice Ann Walsh Bradley.
"I disagree with the majority's conclusion that the testimony of the two Department of Corrections (DOC) agents was sufficient to admit the report generated by the electronic monitoring device that was admitted as evidence in the present case," Abrahamson wrote." The underlying scientific principles have not been presumed reliable based upon a statute, in a prior determination in our case law, or by resort to sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned such that taking judicial notice is appropriate."
She noted that reliance on technology doesn't necessarily make it reliable in court, citing law enforcement and corrections' common use of polygraphs, the results of which are not admissible in court.
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So there you are. Don't drink and drive while you are on home monitoring. ADSENSE HERE
Two Words No Man Likes to Hear: Botched Circumcision
ADSENSE HERE
I was planning to revisit this subject because of the proposed San Francisco ban on circumcision which is much in the news due to an ACLU lawsuit disputing the constitutionality of the proposed ban based on religious freedoms. ADSENSE HERE
You Aren't Covered!
ADSENSE HERE
Oregon State Bar says its Professional Liability Fund should not have to cover a law firm that hired a secretary with a history of theft who forged checks and embezzled $150,000 from an estate.
The Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund sued the Williamson & Williamson law firm and the estate involved in the alleged embezzlement, in Multnomah County Court. The Bar says it does not owe coverage to the Williamson firm because it knew the secretary had a history of theft.
In 2002 the Williamson firm represented the estate of Marjorie Hope Morton in a probate action in Columbia County.
In March 2010, an attorney for the Morton Estate told the Oregon Bar that Shirley Paul, a legal secretary for Williamson & Williamson, had embezzled more than $150,000 from the estate's checking account, according to the complaint.
That letter "was the first written notification ever provided to the PLF, by anyone, concerning Paul's embezzlement of funds from checking accounts handled by and/or in the possession of Williamson & Williamson," the complaint states.
In July 2010, the estate's trustee Roy Rogers sued Williamson & Williamson for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duties in Multnomah County.
In that action, Rogers said Paul had "forged checks and embezzled funds from the Estate by making out checks payable to herself, forging the signature of an authorized signer, negotiating the checks, and keeping the proceeds or converting them to her own use."
Rogers said he did not know about the embezzlement until Paul herself contacted him from prison, in February 2010. He said the Williamson firm should have supervised and reviewed the checks she wrote.
In November 2010, the Columbia County Court executed an escrow agreement on the coverage dispute. In January this year, the PLF "advanced funds in the amount of $184,054.00, in full and final settlement of the Morton-related claims" from the underlying action, which it says resolved all claims by the estate.
The Williamson estate denied a claim submitted by the PLF, which led to the current lawsuit.
"Through this action, the PLF does not seek reimbursement of the defense costs it incurred to provide a defense in the underlying action," the complaint states. "Instead, the subject at issue in this action is whether or not the PLF has any duty to provide indemnity to any covered party under the applicable PLF Plan for the Morton-related claims."
The PLF says it does not owe the Williamson firm any legal duty because it knew that Shirley Paul had a history of theft and embezzlement since at least 2000. It says the firm also knew Paul had a gambling habit.
"After her thievery and established pattern and practice of dishonesty involving checks was first discovered, Paul again was provided access to checkbooks and entrusted to resume her management of checking accounts handled at the law firm," according to the complaint.
Because the firm knew of Paul's history of theft, the loss of money "was no longer unexpected or fortuitous and, therefore, ceased to constitute an insurable or contingent risk of liability or loss that could be insured," the Bar says.
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Insurance policy language is written by insurance companies in a manner intended to permit insuarnce companies to deny coverage in many instances. We have talked about this previously, and we will revisit the subject soon. ADSENSE HERE
Creative DUI Sentencing
ADSENSE HERE
You've seen them before: the lollipop-shaped markers along state roads adorned with fake flowers, fading photographs or discolored stuffed animals. As you drive by, the words "Drive Safely" come into view in bold, blunt letters. Perhaps you slow down a bit. Maybe you stop texting. You might place a second hand on the steering wheel.
It's more likely you won't pay any attention at all. But hundreds of Florida families wish you would. And if you drive drunk, recklessly or commit repeat traffic offenses in Seminole County, Judge Carmine Bravo will make sure you start noticing.
The 18th Circuit Court judge has always been known for his creative sentences, but as one DUI case after another came across his desk, Bravo said he wanted to find a way to educate and not just punish offenders. Since 2004, he has sentenced drivers convicted of misdemeanor traffic offenses to writing 500-word essays about the people memorialized in roadside markers.
"Sentencing should include something punitive, educational and remedial if possible," Bravo said. "Many don't realize how irresponsible they can be on the road. It takes focus, care and maturity to drive."
The Florida Department of Transportation has been providing the round aluminum signs free to families of crash victims since 1997, said spokesman Steve Olson. His agency's maintenance office in Oviedo, which covers Seminole and north Orange counties, receives about 20 requests a year — particularly along Interstate 4, State Road 46 and S.R. 50.
In Bravo's Marker program, offenders are ordered to research five crash victims, retrieve accident reports, visit the memorial site, make some kind of improvement while there and take a picture. Through the years, the judge has received hundreds of reports; some were handwritten, while others were typed or bound in plastic folders.
Woman told story of sisters in angel-themed scrapbook
The essay rubric was simple. Writers were to include details about the crash, the impact it had on the victim's family and how it could have been avoided. They often included their own reflections.
"Ain't a buzz in the world worth somebody's life," wrote Elijah Ortiz on loose-leaf after being found guilty of drunken driving last year. "Cab fare is cheaper than a funeral and DUI charge." Some people took the project so seriously that they recovered photos of crash scenes and interviewed the victim's relatives.
Nelimar Baello was encouraged by her attorney to complete the program after she landed in Bravo's courtroom on a speeding charge in 2005. The 33-year-old woman placed each typed page of her work in a plastic page protector and tucked them in an angel-themed pink scrapbook.
Baello said she was uncomfortable about "going to a place where someone died, but then you understand the reality that when you speed you could end up dying or killing someone else." She focused part of her essay on two sisters, ages 2 and 5, who were killed in 2004 when another driver ran a red light and smashed into the family car.
"I have learned a lesson by doing this project. … Feeling the agony of what occurred in these sites, it made me think that innocent people could die due to reckless driving," she wrote.
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I like and agree with these sorts of creative efforts; although I have my doubts about whether there is any empirical value. It would be nice to see some sort of statistical study--enough of these programs exist, although DUI sentencing isn't standardized anywhere. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to see some sort of 5 year follow-up for defendants who undergo creative sentencing versus punitive programming. The thing is--does writing an essay help a drunk driver make some sort of neurological connection between his or her act of impaired driving and death? ADSENSE HERE
NC Death Penalty Lawyer, Lisa Dubs, Profiled
ADSENSE HERE
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| Dubs reacts to a jury verdict acquitting Michael Mead |
Quartzsite, AZ Is at War!
Quartzsite AZ caught my attention a week or two ago when I saw the following YouTube video from a City Council meeting. The lady, Jennifer Jade being arrested at the microphone is a local news publisher. The person repeatly demanding that the police desist is the town's Mayor. You can see how much influence he has:
Sunday, the Arizona Republic published its take on the disaster in little Quartzsite. Apparently, the insanity in Maricopa and Phoenix is metastasizing. This is from Dennis Wagner's story at AZCentral:
There may be debate as to who is right or which side is winning. But it's undisputed that municipal business has become a sideshow to infighting that disrupts nearly every town department and meeting.
Mayor Ed Foster, newspaper publisher Jennifer "Jade" Jones and most of the police officers in Quartzsite say the Town Council and police chief ignore Arizona's public-records law and misuse police power to silence their critics.
"There's a cabal running Quartzsite," Foster said, "and I'm about to take it down."
Council members and the police chief, in turn, say their critics are simply a bunch of agitators trying to stir up trouble.
By last Sunday, six days after the video was posted on YouTube, the political firestorm was so heated that council members announced plans to conduct future meetings without public notice and to prohibit comments from citizens.
Foster said that decision was made in violation of Arizona law. "I refused to be a part of an illegal meeting behind closed doors," he said. "I announced the meeting was canceled, but they went right ahead."
The incident is just the latest in a circus act that for years has paralyzed the town: dysfunction and distrust fueled by a historical feud, recall attempts and allegations of public malfeasance, abuse of power and government secrets.
In the past three years alone, Quartzsite has been through five mayors and a trio of recall elections. (Foster, who has been mayor since 2010, is facing a recall vote next month.) The municipal government is buried in costly lawsuits.
And at least 10 Quartzsite activists, including the mayor and four past council members or candidates, said they were charged with petty crimes after criticizing the Town Council and Police Chief Jeff Gilbert.
According to media reports the Mayor and others have been, vainly, begging the Arizona attorney general to investigate. Of course, in Arizona the state government is too busy with defending anti-immigration laws, enacting restrictive abortion legislation and (yeehaw!) protecting whack-job rights to guns to bother with a little something like free speech, the right to assembly and municipal governance. ADSENSE HERE
Sunday, the Arizona Republic published its take on the disaster in little Quartzsite. Apparently, the insanity in Maricopa and Phoenix is metastasizing. This is from Dennis Wagner's story at AZCentral:
There may be debate as to who is right or which side is winning. But it's undisputed that municipal business has become a sideshow to infighting that disrupts nearly every town department and meeting.
Mayor Ed Foster, newspaper publisher Jennifer "Jade" Jones and most of the police officers in Quartzsite say the Town Council and police chief ignore Arizona's public-records law and misuse police power to silence their critics.
"There's a cabal running Quartzsite," Foster said, "and I'm about to take it down."
Council members and the police chief, in turn, say their critics are simply a bunch of agitators trying to stir up trouble.
By last Sunday, six days after the video was posted on YouTube, the political firestorm was so heated that council members announced plans to conduct future meetings without public notice and to prohibit comments from citizens.
Foster said that decision was made in violation of Arizona law. "I refused to be a part of an illegal meeting behind closed doors," he said. "I announced the meeting was canceled, but they went right ahead."
The incident is just the latest in a circus act that for years has paralyzed the town: dysfunction and distrust fueled by a historical feud, recall attempts and allegations of public malfeasance, abuse of power and government secrets.
In the past three years alone, Quartzsite has been through five mayors and a trio of recall elections. (Foster, who has been mayor since 2010, is facing a recall vote next month.) The municipal government is buried in costly lawsuits.
And at least 10 Quartzsite activists, including the mayor and four past council members or candidates, said they were charged with petty crimes after criticizing the Town Council and Police Chief Jeff Gilbert.
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On second thought, maybe the municipal cancer began with a Quartzsite-tumor. According to media reports the Mayor and others have been, vainly, begging the Arizona attorney general to investigate. Of course, in Arizona the state government is too busy with defending anti-immigration laws, enacting restrictive abortion legislation and (yeehaw!) protecting whack-job rights to guns to bother with a little something like free speech, the right to assembly and municipal governance. ADSENSE HERE
Post a Pic of Your Penis--That'll Be a Disbarment
ADSENSE HERE
Hat Tip to Courthouse News Service for original article. ADSENSE HERE
The Exculpatory "No"
ADSENSE HERE
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge, Bridgett McCafferty (pic, entering court) was scheduled to be sentenced on her conviction for multiple counts of lying to the FBI. That sentencing hearing was put off to August--her convictions falls well within this discussion. As I have said repeatedly, this "disgraced" judge was prosecuted for nothing more than "lying" in and of itself. She committed no underlying crime apart from stupidity and a breach of ethics. Her lies to the FBI were nothing more than an attempt to deny unethical phone calls she had with her political bosses that asked for favors that in and of themselves appear not to have impacted the outcome of a case she supervised. McCafferty's career is gone, she lost her law license, and reputation but, of course, that's not enough, the federal prosecutor wants her to spend years in the federal penitentiary. ADSENSE HERE
Another Big Law Bad Guy Caught In Child Porn Distribution and Possession
ADSENSE HERE
According to the Village Voice: The complaint filed by the FBI includes graphic descriptions of three videos and images they had traced back to an IP address registered to De Sear. Two feature an adult male in sexual acts with a pre-pubescent boy, and another depicts an adult male with a pre-pubescent female who was bound by rope.
During the execution of the search warrant, on or about July 14, 2011, law enforcement agents interviewed EDWARD DE SEAR, who admitted, in substance and in part, that
(1) he downloads and shares child pornography using his laptop;________________________________
(2) he uses the P2P network to download and share child pornography;
(3) he is the only person in his home who uses the P2P network; and
(4) he receives sexual gratification from viewing child pornography
Last year, I passed along many examples of professionals of all sorts involved in this repulsive stuff.
On some psychological level I get how a person gets into the neurological habit of clicking on images and downloading this garbage. But I can't fathom the act of making it, producing computer files comprised of this disturbing stuff, and distributing it. You would think a lawyer would completely understand the perniciousness, let alone the danger in these criminal acts. But as we saw last year, Judges, lawyers, child care workers, psychologists, physicians, bankers and law enforcement are not immune from committing these crimes.
In addition, the FBI complaint states that:
ADSENSE HERE
Lying, Hypocrite, Lawyer, Family-Values Legislator Quits
ADSENSE HERE
Here's reporter Darrel Rowland's story:
An embattled Cincinnati-area state representative quit yesterday afternoon, caught up in controversy after being arrested for drunken driving in Indiana with a stripper in his car and Viagra in his system.
By making his resignation effective Aug. 2, Robert Mecklenborg, R-Green Township, ensured himself that he will be paid for all of July; if he had quit this month, his legislative salary would have been prorated. He also gets a bit more from the state retirement system.
"My recent actions have become a distraction to the additional important work that lies ahead for the members of the 129th General Assembly. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I resign from the Ohio House of Representatives," the married father of three said in a statement today.
"Most importantly, I want to sincerely apologize for any pain and embarrassment I have caused my family, my constituents, and my colleagues. I will be forever grateful to the many constituents and colleagues who have urged me to stay, but I believe it is in the best interests of my family and my constituents to step aside during this difficult time."
His two-sentence resignation letter to House Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, was sent electronically yesterday, although it had been in the works since Saturday, said Mike Dittoe, spokesman for House Republicans. The news was emailed to reporters near the conclusion of yesterday's women's World Cup final soccer match.
Batchelder, who called for Mecklenborg to step down last week and indicated that the resignation was only a matter of time, said in a statement, "Bob has admitted his mistakes and, while difficult, I believe he has made the appropriate decision to step down as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives."
The House's No. 2 GOP leader, Lou Blessing of Cincinnati, said in the same statement: "As a friend and fellow member from Hamilton County, I believe Bob Mecklenborg has provided valuable insight on a number of legislative issues over the years. His service will be missed, but I am pleased that he has appropriately decided to put the interests of his family and constituents first by stepping down from the Ohio House."
Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern, who had earlier called on Mecklenborg to quit, said a veteran lawmaker bears a heavier burden of accountability. "He's not a freshman legislator who had a bad weekend," Redfern said. "It was clear he was going to put others at risk as well as his female passenger."
The chairman chided Mecklenborg for lying three times: to the arresting officer, to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and to those around him.
The latest blow against the GOP representative came last week when it was revealed that four days after he was charged with DUI, Mecklenborg signed a driver's-license application in Ohio saying that he did not have any outstanding traffic citations. Mecklenborg, 59, had an expired driver's license when he was pulled over by an Indiana state trooper on April 23.
A three-term legislator who did not attend last week's House session, he has pleaded not guilty to DUI and is scheduled to appear in court on July 26. A dashboard camera video showed him repeatedly telling the trooper that he had not had anything to drink, even as he failed three field sobriety tests.
Dittoe said Batchelder doesn't regret not calling for Mecklenborg's resignation earlier. Despite Redfern's suspicions to the contrary, Dittoe said the speaker and his staff didn't find out about the indiscretions until early on June 29, shortly before the incident was reported in the press [...]
Mecklenborg was chairman of the House State Government and Elections Committee and sponsored a controversial bill that would require Ohioans to provide a photo ID before being allowed to vote. He also belonged to the Judiciary and Ethics Committee [...]
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Ihe video of the arrest shows Mecklenborg repeatedly lying to the arresting officer and attempting to deceive the Indiana officer. This and Mecklenborg's fraudulent license application may cause some bar disciplinary grief for Mecklenborg. We'll see. ADSENSE HERE
Priceless: Geoffrey Fieger Advises Casey Anthony to Stay Out of Media Spotlight
ADSENSE HERE
Black Men Live Longer in Prison than Out?
ADSENSE HERE
A study of North Carolina inmates has been lighting up certain blawgs/blogs over at the end of last week and over the weekend. According to the study black men may survive longer in prison than on the streets, specifically, "Black men are half as likely to die at any given time if they're in prison than if they aren't[.]"
Intuitively, this makes a lot of sense.
Let me tell you a story. On the morning that I left FCI, Morgantown I was in an area of the institution called R & D, reception and discharge, changing into my street clothes from prison khakis. A young black guy was also dressing in the clothes his people sent in. His clothes were so out-sized that I remarked that he must have lost a lot of weight. He said that had he not gone to jail he would have likely died from hypertension illness that he did not know he suffered from. Setting aside the perils that live on the streets represent, the prison diet (as bad as it is) and the medical care in jail for certain populations is so much better than what was available to these guys in Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, D.C. and Baltimore where a lot of the population at Morgantown hailed from.
Then you subtract out drugs and alcohol, guns, and gang violence life in prison can be an objective improvement.
ADSENSE HERE
"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash"
[S]un Entertainment Corp. is suing a Houston record company over the use of Johnny Cash recordings in advertisements, including a trailer for the movie “Zombieland” that featured a remixed version of “Country Boy" According to the lawsuit, Sun entered into a licensing agreement in 2007 with Compadre Records that allowed the label to remix “Johnny Cash — The Complete Sun Recordings — 1955-1958” for a new album.
[ . . . ] Specifically, Sun alleges that it has not seen its share of $40,000 that Compadre was paid by the producers of “Zombieland,” $23,250 that Compadre was paid by ABC for its use of the same remixed song in promotional advertisements for the CMA Music Festival and Awards, or $70,000 that Compadre was paid by Columbia for its use of the remixed version of “Get Rhythm” in an advertising campaign.
Sun accuses Compadre of breach of contract and copyright infringement. The label has not yet responded to the lawsuit, which is pending in the U.S. District Court in Nashville."
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I have some not very well-thought-out ideas about lawsuits over intellectual property and the fair use doctrine particularly as it relates to artists using original material in new works of art, and small-fry collectors being sued into oblivion by the RIAA. That is not what this case is about. This is an argument by some major corporations having a pissing contest about dollars.
But if you knew the historty . . . well, it's very cool.
With “Jackie Brenston (Ike Turner's sax man) and his Delta Cats,” Phillips recorded the ur-rock and R&B hit “Rocket 88,” about the 1951 Oldsmobile 88. Some historians call this the first true rock records.
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| Sam Phillips and Elvis |
But Johnny Cash is so much more than these Sun recordings in the 1950s.
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| Ar Folsom Prison |
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| Cash in Performance at Folsom Prison |
Oh, and one more thing, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and San Quentin are the greatest law-related recordings in western culture. ADSENSE HERE
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