Month: November 2013

Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Politics, Society

A Pinch of Poison, an Ounce of Protection or a Pound of Cure?

Justiceby Gene Howington, Guest Blogger

From Mike Nifong’s mishandling of the Duke LaCrosse case (which led to his disbarment) to the Oklahoma Supreme Court refusing to disbar Robert Bradley Miller for withholding evidence in capital cases and issuing false subpoenas to Angela Corey’s questionable prosecution of the Trayvon Martin shooting (which seemingly had little or no consequences to Corey whatsoever), stories of prosecutorial misconduct are nothing new to this forum. As always, such malfeasance can be driven by a number of factors – political considerations, public and media pressure, laziness, incompetence, and blind professional ambition to name a few. Regardless of the reasons underlying these kind of cases, the salient point is that such bad behavior on the part of prosecutors undermines the credibility of and the faith of the public in the criminal justice system.

This brings us to the case currently in the news of former Texas prosecutor Ken Anderson.

The former Williamson County District Attorney and Judge (appointed by Rick Perry) agreed to a plea deal for criminal contempt of court for failing to turn over exculpatory evidence in the 1987 murder trial of Michael Morton, later exonerated when the conviction was overturned in 2011. Anderson will pay a $500 fine, perform 500 hours of community service work, spend 10 days in jail and lose his license to practice law. As part of the plea deal, charges of tampering with evidence – which carried a potential penalty of 10 years in prison – were dropped.  Is this sufficient punishment for willfully and wrongly sending a man to prison for 24 years? Does this kind of plea further erode public faith in the accountability of those responsible for running the criminal justice system? While this case is being trumpeted as “precedent shattering”, is it really? What can we do about this kind of systemic error?

Continue reading “A Pinch of Poison, an Ounce of Protection or a Pound of Cure?” →

Bizarre, Society

Building Character the Richie Incognito/Ron English Way

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Late Fall 1975, I was sitting in my living room that we never sat in with my father’s  tie on.  A coach from some nondescript college was talking to my Dad about me coming to play for him. “Never saw a missed block all night,” he crooned. “Your son can play.” My Dad, obviously flattered, asked the coach about academics and was edified that “Look, the books are the same wherever he goes, but we can do more for him. We can make him a man … you know, build his character.”  “That’s our job,” Dad replied. Dad ushered him politely out of the house.

South Beach Bully

dolphins-camp-footballThe nation’s been riveted by the revelations coming out of the Miami Dolphins locker room. Stanford educated right tackle Jonathan Martin abruptly left the team before a big game and checked into a local hospital claiming emotional exhaustion. The fatigue was not caused by the grinding NFL schedule but, according to Martin, from constant bullying by fellow offensive lineman Richie Incognito and others over a two-year period. Martin’s lawyers filed a complaint with the league for denying their client the right to earn a living by promoting or permitting  a hostile work environment. Proven league bad-boy Incognito was suspended indefinitely.

Continue reading “Building Character the Richie Incognito/Ron English Way” →

Bizarre, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Testimony, Uncategorized

Remarkable People: Curtescine Lloyd, a woman not to be trifled with.

Submitted by Charlton Stanley (aka Otteray Scribe), Guest Blogger

“If you’ve got ’em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”
– Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States.

Town of Edwards, MSI should have known something was up. I came home from work one day and my wife met me at the door. “Somebody broke into Curtescine’s house and tried to rape her.” Curtescine Lloyd was one of the nurses on the oncology floor at the hospital. Curtescine lived in Edwards MS, a small bedroom community just a few miles west of where we lived.

Shocked, I asked if there was any word on whether she was hurt, and did we need to go to the hospital. My wife responded, “Not exactly.”

Continue reading “Remarkable People: Curtescine Lloyd, a woman not to be trifled with.” →

Constitutional Law, Religion, Society, Uncategorized

Regarding the Separation of Church and the State’s Money: Charter Schools with Religious Affiliations Being Publicly Funded

SchoolClassroomSubmitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

As a former public school educator, I have been following what has been going on with school reform in this country. I have written posts about some of the groups and individuals involved in the current reform movement (here), the push to privatize public schools (here), school vouchers (here and here), and charter schools (here and here). Despite all the research that I’ve done on the subject, I hadn’t been aware until recently that there are many publicly funded charter schools across this country that have religious affiliations.

In December 2011, Tiffany Gee Lewis (Deseret News) wrote that there had been a “veritable explosion of charter schools over the past two decades.” She noted that a number of the schools that were riding this charter trend were “founded or authorized” by religious and cultural organizations. As she said, the subject of religion in public schools “has always been a hot-button topic.” She added that “the rise of charter schools that tie themselves to a certain ethnic or religious group introduces a new shade of complication to public schooling.”

According to Jessica Meyers of The Dallas Morning News, “Church-charter partnerships are springing up across the country as private institutions lose funding and nontraditional education models grow in popularity. Their emergence prompts questions about the role religious groups should play in the development of publicly funded schools.” She added, “Critics fear the fuzzy division means taxpayers are footing the bill for religious instruction.”

Continue reading “Regarding the Separation of Church and the State’s Money: Charter Schools with Religious Affiliations Being Publicly Funded” →

Congress, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Military, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Police State America

Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger

Hill_Street_Blues_CastI have written some guest blogs in the past dealing with aspects of the issue of America becoming a Police State and will link to them at the end of this piece. There are so many issues that call for our concern and attention in this country today, that dealing with the entire dysfunctional state of our country becomes daunting due to the wealth of material. Finally, the stories on a given issue multiply in such a way that their effect is a realization across all political lines that enough is enough. The issue of our country’s continuing descent into a”Police State” equaling all we know of the vile systems in the USSR and the former East Germany is an issue that concerns me.. The situation is  dire and the consequences have produced not only horrible injustices, but also the many unneeded maiming and deaths of innocent individuals. Our country imprisons more people per capita than any other country in the world by far. Part of the reason for that is the “War on Drugs” an abject failure that falls most heavily upon people with low incomes and people of color. One such incident caused Professor Turley to pen two blogs this week. They were about a man falsely suspected of drug possession who had all his bodily orifices and cavities checked in the local Arizona police’s vain attempt to find evidence of guilt. None was found and the procedures were not only traumatic, but invasive. Thus the “War on Drugs” is one major contributing force to turning our country into a Police State.

Another contributing Police State factor has been the Federal Government militarizing our local police forces. I’ve written about this as well and will link at those blogs at the end as well. Somewhere along the line, certainly hastened by 9/11 it appeared a necessity to some that are police should be turned from officers of the law into a paramilitary occupying army. There is a great distinction between an officer of the law and a paramilitary trooper. An officer of the law the way I see it, is empowered to enforce the criminal law in ways of lawful conduct that are deemed permissible via our Constitution and Statutes.  Thus an officer of the law should be a citizen like the rest of us and in the performance of their jobs should respect the rights of the citizenry. A paramilitary trooper by definition perceives themselves operating in a hostile environment and so everyone in that environment that is not of their army is a potential “hostile”. This unerringly begets a certain level of brutality when dealing with the populace, because from a paramilitary perspective people are presumed guilty, until they are proven innocent. We have seen and I have documented in guest blogs that vast sums of money have come in from the Federal Government to help create paramilitary SWAT teams. Once created, the uses for these teams multiply far beyond their original purpose, because having a tool inevitably causes its usage. After the split I will discuss yet a third factor that adds to this police state mentality, but first I’d like to express the following. The issue of our country becoming a Police State should not be and is not a partisan issue. Just from the opinions of people who follow this blog and comment, we see general agreement that these police tactics violate our Constitution and our innate sense of propriety. We may not all agree on most aspects of government policy, but I would hope we can agree on the proper manner in which our law officers should enforce the peace. Continue reading “Police State America” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Military, Politics, Religion, Science, Society, Supreme Court

Our Insane War on Drugs

Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger

Harry_Jacob_AnslingerI’m going to use what has become a cliché to open up this piece. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing that has failed over and over again.” Often clichés are expressions of reality that nevertheless express problems faced by generation generations and generations of human beings. In my opinion “The War on Drugs” is not only an abysmal failure, but has gone a long way towards destroying the social fabric of this country and corrupting the efforts of law enforcement, by manufacturing a “problem” that they are pressured to solve. The idea for writing this came to mind this week at my local drug store. My wife had sent me for a decongestant that contains pseudo-ephedrine to treat a persistent cold. These medications which were formerly as matter of course located in the Cold and flu section are by law now kept behind the prescription counter. To make my purchase I had to produce a driver’s license, whose number was duly entered into a computer and sign an affirmation form digitally. Now since I was a loyal viewer of “Breaking Bad” I understood why this was seen to be necessary by the government. Pseudo-Ephedrine is used in one common formula to “cook” Chrystal Methedrine, or “Speed”. The idea that I, a 69 year old greybeard, should be recorded as a potential cooker of “meth”, is so ludicrous that it caused me to think about the whole process of drug interdiction that is the result of the War on Drugs.

The reach of the War on Drugs goes far beyond the control of formerly non-controlled substances and has affected and limited the way Doctors prescribe for their patients. This prescription oversight ever expands the categories of controlled substances and puts every physician under undue government surveillance. To illustrate the silliness of this, from my own experience, let me relate that in 2010 I underwent 3 major, life-threatening operations within a 4 month period. After each operation which involved cutting my chest open (the middle one was a heart transplant) in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit I was being given unlimited dosages of morphine to deal with my pain. In each instance after an operation, after two days, I would refuse the morphine because it was affecting my thinking and the pain without it was tolerable. In each instance after practically having to forcefully deny the proffered morphine in the morning, my request for Xanax that evening to help me sleep was denied, even though my Surgeon had prescribed it. This required a late hour call to the Doctor on call to prescribe it. The nurse was only following procedure, but the scrupulousness of the procedure is the result of the War on Drugs. Physicians now treating people for various pain symptoms are now under very close scrutiny regarding the medications they prescribe. To me this is nonsensical, given that addicts always find ways to get their drugs no matter what strictures are put into place. What follows is my examination of the premises behind the War on Drugs, its affect on all of us and my solution to this “problem”. Continue reading “Our Insane War on Drugs” →

Criminal law, Lawyering, Society

Ohio Lawyer Fights To Retain License After Disclosure That He Had Affair With The Wife Of Client On Trial For Murder

DNA, Robert J. Caulley, ODRC photoarticle-2488871-193CBB3C00000578-184_306x423How would you like to be up for a double murder and then learn that your lawyer was sleeping with your wife during the trial? That is what Robert Caulley learned after he was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder of a father and mother. Then he learned that his now ex-wife (no surprise there) was sleeping with his lawyer, James D. Owen. Owen is now trying to keep his license while admitting that he violated the core ethical rules governing our profession. Not only did he have an affair with the wife of a client, but could be viewed as having an incentive to shackle the cuckold. If his client were to lose, it could be viewed as a good way to get rid of an inconvenient husband.

Continue reading “Ohio Lawyer Fights To Retain License After Disclosure That He Had Affair With The Wife Of Client On Trial For Murder” →

Bizarre, International, Society, Torts

Dead Drunk: Polish Man Passes Out Drinking . . . Wakes Up In Body Bag Awaiting An Autopsy In Morgue

120px-Toe_tagThere is an interesting potential tort action out of Poland. In the United States, there is heightened liability standards for the mishandling of corpses. However, what if you mishandle a person who you thought was a corpse? That is what happened to Marek Michalski, 56, who drank himself into a stupor and passed out on a bench in Pieotrkow, Poland. He was assumed dead and bagged and sent to the morgue. He woke up in a body bag in the morgue and had to roll off a table to free himself from the body bag.

Continue reading “Dead Drunk: Polish Man Passes Out Drinking . . . Wakes Up In Body Bag Awaiting An Autopsy In Morgue” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, Society, Torts

Missouri Police Repeatedly Shoot Man With Tasers And Arrest Him To Prevent Him From Rescuing His Three-Year-Old Son From Fire

article-2491452-19429BE500000578-935_634x708People in Louisiana, Missouri are angry today about the treatment of a step father, Ryan Miller, who was shot with a taser by police officers to prevent him from trying to save his three-year-old stepson, Riley Miller (on the right in the picture), from a raging fire. The fire department refused to enter the building as too dangerous but Ryan Miller wanted to try. He never got his chance. He was shot by two officers with three tasters and handcuffed. He was then taken to jail, though no charges were filed. Riley Miller burned to death.

Continue reading “Missouri Police Repeatedly Shoot Man With Tasers And Arrest Him To Prevent Him From Rescuing His Three-Year-Old Son From Fire” →

Congress, Politics, Society

Close Enough For Government Work? Sebellius And The Irrelevance Of Job Performance

220px-Kathleen_Sebelius_official_portraitBelow is my column today on the continuing problems with the Affordable Care Act.  I believe some national health care plan was needed.  However, before passage, I spoke on Capitol Hill and criticized the poor drafting of the Act as well as the constitutional concerns over the federalism issues.  I was most surprised by simply the poor shape of the massive bill.  It was rushed through Congress to avoid having to go back to the Senate after the death of Ted Kennedy.  The result was many poorly considered provisions.  For that reason, I expected (particularly after the expenditure of such a huge amount) that the rollout would be done with particular care. I was shocked by the gross negligence shown by the Administration.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius repeatedly assured Congress and the public that the system was ready after almost a half billion dollars in federal funds and years of preparation.  She never informed Congress that her top tech officer (who has now resigned) refused to sign off on the program due to concerns of the lack of full testing and that various experts expressed doubts about the launch.  However, Sebelius and her aides insisted on effectively launching in the blind.  Putting aside how one may feel about national health care, this would seem an objective measure of the lack of performance.  This was the single most important task not just for Sebellius but the Administration and it was a failure.  For those who have fought hard for health care, the failure played into the hands of critics.   Yet, with a program named after a Democratic President, there seems an unwillingness to separate the merits of Obamacare from the poor administration of the rollout of the program. While officials are now profusely apologizing, it seems that (unlike most citizens) high-ranking officials are immune from performance based termination.  That is the subject of the column in USA Today.

Continue reading “Close Enough For Government Work? Sebellius And The Irrelevance Of Job Performance” →

Criminal law, Lawyering, Society, Torts

California Lawyer Turns On Wife In Bizarre False Imprisonment Case

We previously discussed the case of Kent and Jill Easter, two California lawyers arrested for allegedly planting drugs in the car of a nemesis on the PTA board. The case has turned even more bizarre with Kent Easter blaming Jill Easter for the crime. The couple is separated and, after the arrest, Kent Easter learned that his wife was involved in an affair.

Continue reading “California Lawyer Turns On Wife In Bizarre False Imprisonment Case” →