Year: 2011

Bizarre, Politics, Torts

Et Tu, Perry? Cain Accuses Perry Campaign As Source Of Sexual Harassment Claims

Herman Cain believes that he has found the fingerprints on the knife in his back in the expanding sexual harassment scandal . . . Rick Perry. The Cain camp has said it was Perry’s campaign that leaked the story to Politico in a hit job on Cain. Of course, there still remains the question of who told the Perry campaign about the allegations in the confidential settlement. Yet, according to the New York Times article below, there were plenty of folks who were aware of the allegations — and contradict Cain’s account. In a race to the bottom, Perry’s people have pointed fingers at the Romney camp.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering

Three Strikes and You’re Out [of Lawyers]: Judge Rules That Violent Defendant Must Represent Himself

For Joshua Monson, it appears that the court has finally run out of pencils and he has run out of lawyers. Monson has stabbed three prior lawyers with pens or pencils. Now, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge David Kurtz (left) has ruled that he has forfeited his right to counsel and must represent himself.
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Bizarre, Criminal law

The Ultimate Personhood Claim? Fox Headline Suggests A Fetal Insanity Claim

This Fox News headline struck me as possibly the latest effort to establish personhood for a fetus: “Woman Accused of Killing Mom, Fetus Pleads Insanity.” Once you open up the story from the main page, it does not improve much with Wisconsin Woman Accused of Killing Mom and Fetus Pleads Insanity.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society, Torts

Is Justin Bieber a Dead-Beat Dad Or Rape Victim?

I rarely take much interest in celebrity story, but one legal stories this week caught my eye: a woman who is seeking paternity liability from Justin Bieber. What is fascinating is that it would seem likely that any paternity payment would be accompanied by a possible charge of statutory rape. The alleged 30-second tryst after the concert occurred when Bieber was just 16 in a state (California) with a statutory date of 18.
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Lawyering, Politics, Torts

Did Cain Trip The Wire? Attorney Suggests Breach of Confidentiality Agreement

There is an interesting legal question at the heart of the still unfolding scandal over whether Republican Presidential contender Herman Cain engaged in sexual harassment. Women accusing Cain were reportedly given a settlement with a gag provision — a common element to such settlements.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Lawyering, Society

Who Are These People? Foreclosure Firm Staff Mock Homeless People At Halloween Party

These pictures sent to columnist Joe Nocera from a Halloween party last year show affluent people mocking homeless people with signs like this reading “3rd Party Squatter. I Lost My Home & Was Never Served!!” Under any circumstances in a devastating recession, such costumes would show callous and tasteless senses of humor. However, this was a party of lawyer with the law firm of Steven J. Baum, a “foreclosure mill” representing banks and mortgage servicers.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, Torts

Woman Jokes With Ten-Year-Old About Taking His Halloween Candy . . . Ten-Year-Old Pulls Handgun On Woman

In Aiken, South Carolina, kids appear to take the trick in trick-and-treating more seriously than the rest of the country. A 10-year-old Aiken trick-or-treater pulled a gun on a woman who joked that she wanted take his candy on Halloween. Police found that his brother, also ten, had his own weapon.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics, Society

Police Union Under Fire For T-Shirts Reading “U Raise ‘Em, We Cage ‘Em.”

A Northern California school police officers union under fire after they sold T-shirts with a picture of a child behind bars and the slogan: “U raise ’em, we cage ’em.” The Twin Rivers Police Department in North Highlands has ended further sales after the objections of citizens.
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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International

Saudi Arabi Beheads “Sorcerer”

In another example of primitivism dressed up as law, a Sharia sentence was carried out in Saudi Arabia to cut off the head of a man accused of being a “sorcerer.” Abdul Hamid Bin Hussain Bin Moustafa al-Fakki was executed in a car park Medina as citizens looked on to support punishment for immoral conduct.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

More Wrong Than Wright: Sheriff Calls For Citizens To Arm Themselves And Mete Out Their Own Justice

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright surprised many this week in calling a press conference to discuss an assault on a woman in one of the city parks. Wright used the opportunity to repeatedly call on all of the citizens to arm themselves and expressed frustration that someone with a weapon did not come along and take care of Walter Lance, 46, rather than have him dealt with by the justice system. Wright began his news conference by saying, “Our form of justice is not making it. . . . Carry a concealed weapon. That’ll fix it.”

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, International, Military, Politics, Religion, Society

Separation Anxiety: Is the Obama Administration Teaching Foreign Soldiers A Distorted View of Constitutional Law and History?

A writer for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has published a startling blog entry that, if true, should be a major story on the government’s indoctrination of flawed historical and constitutional accounts in training foreign military personnel. The article below discussed material used in International Military Student Officer (IMSO) program run by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. It is run by the military but is under the supervision and direction of the Secretary of State. The author from MRFF, Chris Rodda, quotes from the material used in the training and it is pretty shocking.
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