Just when the nightmare of John Ashcroft has receded in many minds, he’s back to remind us how we became an international pariah for our abandonment of fundamental legal principles and why the Supreme Court and other courts have ruled repeatedly against the Bush Administration. In the video below, Ashcroft scoffs at the suggestion that detainees deserve a fair trial, revealing his evident contempt for the rule of law.
Continue reading “Ashcroft “Stunned” People Think Detainees Deserve Due Process”
Year: 2008
There is another interesting case to emerge from the New Hampshire Supreme Court. A former district court bailiff, Robert Theriault, 51, was charged with prostitution after offering a couple $50 to allow him to videotape them having sex. The Court ruled in the opinion below that the state could not prosecute him for prostitution on first amendment grounds since this is precisely what people do in making pornographic movies — which constitutes protected speech. One could call this the Isherwood Defense from Christopher Isherwood’s 1955 movie class, “I Am A Camera.”
Continue reading “I Am A Camera: New Hampshire Supreme Court Overturns Prostitution Conviction for Adult Movie Maker”
A Dallas police officer has achieved a certain fame after the video below captures him tasering himself after a chase with a suspected car thief.
Continue reading “Video: Officer Tasers Himself After Car Chase”
There could be a major criminal case emerging from Lynchburg, Virginia where prosecutors have charged Ronald Wojdyla, 57, with child pornography for superimposing his picture over a picture of an 11-year-old girl. It is a continuation of the debate over computer-generated porn, though in this case it is a real girl — only the sexual contact is fake. As the name might suggest, Lynchburg is not the place that one should test such fine points of pornography law.
Three students at the Chapin High School in El Paso, Texas seems to have fallen under the Red Queen of Hearts rule of “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.” Three high school students were disciplined after they were accused of lacing brownies with laxatives — and later confessed under investigation by the school. There is only one problem: the Armstrong Forensic Laboratory Inc. in Arlington found the the brownies contained pure, uncut . . . brownies.
Ex-federal prosecutor Richard Convertino was hammered by a federal judge for his allegedly unethical conduct in the Detroit terrorism case and investigated by the Justice Department for his misconduct. However, Convertino is now moving against Detroit Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter who has refused to disclose the sources underlying his true story that Convertino was under investigation. Convertino argues “that publication of truthful information about him was a criminal act.” Ashenfelter may soon go to jail on contempt if Convertino continues to press for sanctions.
Continue reading “Disgraced Federal Prosecutor Seeks to Punish Detroit Press Reporter”
A teenager and his family in Oklahoma is discovering the troubling consequences of our sex offender and statutory rape laws. Ricky (his last name is being withheld at his request) had sex when he was 16 with a girl who allegedly told him that she was 16. She wasn’t and prosecutors charged him with having sex with a 13 year old. He pled guilty and was sentenced to a two years probation — and registry as a sex offender for ten years. While the judge would three years later expunge that record, Oklahoma still insists on registering him as a high-risk sex offender — forcing him to live like a pariah and satisfy the various restrictions put in place for recidivist child molesters.
Teachers are being asked to avoid using red pens to mark homework as “too aggressive” and potentially harmful to students social and emotional wellbeing.
Continue reading “Get the Red Out: Australian Government Moves Against Use of Red Pens by Teachers”
You might want to be a bit careful giving your overnight to the UPS guy at the corner. Police in the Arizona Department of Public Safety officials seised 2,118 pounds of 2,118 pounds of marijuana from a fake UPS truck. It brings a new meaning to the slogan, “What Can Brown Do For You?” Among other things, it can bring some good Hawaii Maui Waui to our door.
Continue reading “The “P” Stands for Pot: Drug Dealers Using Fake UPS Trucks”
The taser abuse stories continue to roll in. In the most recent case out of El Reno, Oklahoma, police stopped a driver who appeared uncooperative in getting out of the truck. They tasered him only to learn later that he was in diabetic shock.
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Two former prison guards, Shawn Freeman and Wesley Lanham, have been sentenced for federal prison for 14 years and 15 years respectively for allowing inmates to rape an 18-year-old locked up overnight on traffic violations. U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves sentenced the two in an important — and rare — punishment for the prison rape — a largely ignored epidemic in our prisons.
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Live television is not for the faint of heart as MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer allegedly learned when a producer went on a profanity laced tirade with an open mike picking up the full exchange. The video below could be a training tape for anchors and producers alike. However, some sites are now saying that this is a fake, which may be as interesting as the original story. It is incredible that people would go to such lengths to create such a story.
Continue reading “MSNBC Producer Allegedly Goes Live — And Livid. But Is It Real?”
Edward G. Kelly, 51, a defense attorney in Fall River, Massachusetts has pleaded innocent to a bizarre criminal allegation: that Kelly pretended to be a district attorney employee to tell government witnesses on the telephone that they did not need to show up for court.
Continue reading “Lawyer Accused of Impersonating a District Attorney Employee to Keep Witnesses From Appearing in Court”
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been arrested on federal corruption charges related to his alleged efforts to sell his appointment of a successor for Barack Obama to the United States Senate. Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, are charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery in the Northern District of Illinois.
As expected, the Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J. to intervene to bar President-elect Barack Obama from taking office due to the fact that he had British citizenship at birth.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Turns Down Donofrio Appeal”