Category: Bizarre

Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Wisconsin Juror Fined Just $300 After Abandoning Deliberations To Party In Cancun

Ivana Samardzic, 20, is one lucky lady that her trip to Cancun was not shorten to a trip to the can. The Wisconsin juror was supposed to be deliberating a verdict in a felony shooting case when she simply left for the airport to go on vacation, calling the clerk from the airport to say that she left her vote in the jury room and did not want to lose out on the family trip. To the surprise of many, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge JD Watts (shown here) did not jail her for contempt but simply let the 11 member jury decide the case and fined Samardzic $300. The case that Samardzic abandoned involved a wonderfully named defendant, Spartacus Outlaw, who was accused in a felony shooting case.

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Bizarre, Courts

New York Judge Censured After Accidental Discharge Of Weapon In Chambers

Judge Vincent Sgueglia of the Tioga County Family and Surrogate’s Courts has been censure in a bizarre case after he took a loaded .38-caliber Smith and Wesson that discharged in his chambers. There is no rule preventing judges from packing heat in chambers in New York but the state Commission on Judicial Conduct declared that Sgueglia, 70, should not have approved his own concealed-carry permit.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Politics, Religion

Taliban Behead 17 People Found Dancing At Party In Afghanistan

Taliban militia in Afghanistan objected to a mixed-gender dance party in a Southern province this week as unIslamic. Rather than turning off the music, the militia (which controls the area) beheaded 17 people at the party to defend the faith against immorality. (A Taliban official is shown here in one of its favorite past times of beating women into submission).

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Bizarre, International, Torts

Newlywed Woman Pulled Into Canadian River and Drowned By Her Wedding Dress in Photo Shoot

There is a terribly tragic story out of Quebec where Maria Pantazopoulos, 30, was drowned during a photo shoot near the Dorwin Falls in Rawdon. Pantazopoulos was in her wedding dress and posing by dipping her toes in the water. The newlywed realtor was wearing a long wedding dress that became saturated and she was pulled into the current. The weight of the dress pulled Pantazopoulos down quickly into the water.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Politics, Society

Saudi Government Holds Woman For Months Without Charge In Business Dispute With Saudi Princess And Then Orders Her Flogged 500 Times

Nagla Wafa, 39, an Egyptian wedding planner and designer, had a simple business dispute with a partner over a cashed check and a joint business venture. The partner says that she cashed a check and reneged on opening a restaurant. It is the type of thing that is standard fare for courts around the world. However, this is Saudi Arabia and the partner was a princess in the Royal family. Wafa was arrested without charge and held for months. She was then belated charged with fraud and sentenced to 500 lashes and five years in prison in a case that has drawn rightful condemnation in Egypt. She is shown here with her two sons.

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Bizarre, Torts

Running Over Big Foot: Montana Man Hit and Killed Along Highway Trying To Convince Drivers That He Is The Sasquatch

There is a bizarre story out of Montana this week where Randy Lee Tenley, 44, reportedly wanted to make people think he was the Sasquatch by dressing in a military “Ghillie suit” (used by snipers) like the one shown right and walked along a highway at night. The drivers apparently had trouble seeing Tenley, let alone a Sasquatch, in the camouflage and ran over Tenley twice, killing him. (The photo on left is one of the best known Sasquatch shots).

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Bizarre, Courts, Politics, Society

Thanks-A-Lot: Texas Attorney Accuses Judge of Pressuring Him To Buy Girl Scout Cookie

Judge Elia Cornejo Lopez has been accused by Texas lawyer Nat C. Perez of a rather unique form of abuse: cookie coercion. Perez has filed an unusual motion for recusal that lists, among other complaints, Lopez’s alleged pressure on Perez to buy her daughter’s girl scout cookies. He suggests that a couple boxes of “Thanks-a-lot” would go a long way with Lopez and that he refusal meant he could not “Tag-a-long” in cases. . . but he did get a judicial “Shoutout”
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Bizarre, International, Military, Politics, Religion

Leading Israeli Rabbi Calls For The Death of Iranians and Destruction of Iran

You may recall how recently an array of high ranking Israeli officials in the Netanyahu government, including National Security Council head Ya’akov Amidror and Interior Minister Eli Yishai, briefed ultra-Orthodox rabbi and Shas leader Ovadia Yosef on the proposed war with Iran in the hopes of receiving his blessing. Both the war (which Netanyahu reportedly wants before the U.S. presidential election) and the need to get nod from a religious leader were criticized, including by some of us who noted the extreme views of Yosef. Now, Yosef has called upon Jews to pray for the death of Iranians and the destruction of the nation of Iran. Now we have spiritual leaders is both countries calling on God to annihilate whole countries as examples of divine and moral justice.

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Bizarre, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Society, Torts

Shielding The Crown Jewels: British Royal Family Blocks Publication of Randy Harry Photos in England While Hundreds of Millions See Them On The Internet

Prince Harry’s latest drunken escapade is now laid out for hundreds of millions to see in all of his naked glory . . . except for people in England. The Royal family moved quickly to effectively bar British newspapers from publishing the photos under the English libel laws, which I have criticized in the past as both draconian and restrictive of free speech. Now the Sun is bucking the effective order from the palace and now running the photos. In the meantime, millions of Brits were able to see the photos barred in newspapers but simply turning on their computers.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Public Intoxication Or Just Monkeying Around? University Lab Tech Arrested After Being Found Partying With Lab Monkeys

Coley Mitchell, 32, has been arrested after he was found drunk with his pants down in a campus locker room with two lab monkeys at the Georgia Health Sciences University. The charge of public intoxication is interesting since he was presumably working at the lab.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Love 0 To Life: Tennis Umpire Arrested Before US Open Matches For Allegedly Killing Her Husband

Lois Ann “Lolo’’ Goodman, 70, was a well-known US Open judge who faced down the likes of John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors in heated calls. However, Goodman is now in jail after police accused her of killing her husband Alan Goodman, 80, with a coffee mug back in Los Angeles.

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Bizarre, International, Religion, Society

Ecce Homo: Spaniards Outraged After “Beholding” Restored Painting

This piece by Elias Garcia Martinez is entitled “Ecce Homo” (Behold the Man), but many would prefer not to look after an artist “restored” the painting in Borja, Spain. Many are outraged at that artist — described only as an amateur artist in her 80s — for the effective destruction of the work from 1910.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

TSA and Delta Force Couple Off Plane For Wearing Tee-Shirt Mocking TSA

We have yet another case of passengers being thrown off planes because of a message on their clothing. Arijit Guha and his wife were returning from a funeral on Delta at the Buffalo-Niagara Airport when they were told that his tee-shirt mocking the TSA made passengers and employees feel “very uncomfortable”. Guha is an Arizona State University graduate student.

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Bizarre, Politics, Society

Head Case: Texas Judge Calls For Preparation For “Civil War” If Obama Is Elected To Repel A United Nations Invasion


Lubbock County Judge Tom Head is opposed to the reelection of Barack Obama but does not simply confined his objections to unemployment or civil liberties or those mundane political concerns. Head has called for a tax increase to prepare for “civil war” if Obama is elected. He insists that Obama is planning to turn over the United States to the United Nations in this second term. He wants to prepare Lubbock for the invasion of United Nations troops as well as the riots and demonstrations that are likely to occur following the reelection of Obama.

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Academia, Bizarre, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Iran Bans Women From Academic Programs

Despite the harsh conditions for women living under the Sharia laws, Iran has a long history of highly educated women. Indeed, women have been outnumbering men three to one in entrance exams — and outperformed men in many tests. Iranian clerics have mandated a new policy that will surely wipe out that deficiency among men: they are effectively barring women from dozens of degree programs and universities as a whole in some cases. It is a devastating blow for women’s rights and will lock millions of women into lives of subjugation.

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