Mark Alan Jarosik, 43, believes it is never too early to shop for Christmas. He was arrested in California for trying to hire a man to kill his ex-girlfriend and to videotape the murder . . . so he could watch it over the Christmas holiday.
Continue reading “Stocking Snuffer: California Man Allegedly Tries to Hire Hitman to Kill Ex-Girlfriend on Videotape To Watch Over Christmas”
Category: Bizarre
This may not be legal in Alabama, but it is still pretty remarkable.
Continue reading “Love Will Find a Way”
Elliot Madison, 41, is the subject of an intriguing — and in my view compelling — constitutional fight with both federal and state authorities. A self-described anarchist, Madison was arrested for using Twitter to send messages on the location of police during the G20 protests. Pittsburgh has been accused of excessive measures and this case appears to be one such case.
Continue reading “Criminal Tweets: Man Arrested for Twitter Messages During G20 Protests”
There is a disturbing and important ruling out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In the prisoner case below, Nelson v. Correctional Medical Services, the court examined whether a prisoner guard is entitled to qualified immunity when she shackles a female prisoner during labor despite the objections of the medical staff. Arkansas corrections officer Patricia Turensky was found not to be entitled to such protection for her actions in shackling inmate Shawanna Nelson. The decision was handed down on October 2, 2009.
There are reports this week detailing a 1993 agreement of Roman Polanski to pay Samantha Geimer $500,000 in damages for raping her when she was thirteen. It is an interesting twist in the case because Geimer later said that she forgave Polanski and advocated that charges be dropped. The agreement came 16 years after the rape when Polanski was living as a fugitive and trying to come home.
Continue reading “Polanski Agreed to Pay Victim $500,000 in 1993 Despite Professing His Love for Young Girls”
It appears that there is an app for quick incarceration. Donald Goodrich, 38, was arrested after making threats against the operating life of his iPhone in an Apple store in Cincinnati.
Continue reading “iJail: Mr. Goodrich Goes to Jail After Threatening to Shoot His IPhone”
Abdul Mouti Bayoumi, a well-known and influential scholar in Egypt, has called for the execution of women who buy female virginity-faking kits. Since such kits help conceal vice, he argues, their use should be a death-penalty offense under Sharia law. Continue reading “How to Die a Virgin in Egypt: Leading Scholar Calls for the Execution of Women Buying Kits to Fake Virginity”
The Iranians have faced rape charges recently in cases of women facing execution as well as the rape of protesters. Now, two protesters have come forward to publicly allege that they were raped as a form of extrajudicial punishment while in Iranian jails following the demonstrations over of the disputed presidential election.
Continue reading “Two Iranian Protesters Go Public With Allegations of Rape While in Custody”
There is a fascinating case in Ontario, Canada this week. Levi Shaeffer, 30, was shot dead by Peterborough police officers when he was camping near Pickle lake. He had not committed any crimes and was simply camping on an island. However, an investigation was terminated because the officers involved in the shooting did not write down contemporary accounts of the shooting after meeting with counsel. Chief Murray Rodd, however, insists on the department website that “[w]e are truly dedicated to our core values to be the best Police Service, providing the highest standard of professionalism in partnership with our community.” They might want to start with writing down accounts of shooting campers.
Dorothy Richardson, 76, has been sentenced to 80 hours of community service after being arrested for beating a baby deer to death in her garden in Euclid, Ohio — just outside of Cleveland. She will also pay a $500 fine and have to watch the movie Bambi 1000 times (OK, just the community service and the fine).
Continue reading “Beating Bambi: Ohio Woman Sentenced For Beating Fawn To Death With Shovel”
Judge Charles J. Markey is asking for a public rehearing. The New York Law Journal and the ABA Journal ran a story detailing how Markey allegedly denied a motion or dismissed a case due to improper stapling. The story was picked up on various legal blogs, including this blog. However, Markey has written a letter to the editor insisting that the facts have been distorted and that this was no “case of first impression” of dismissal for negligent stapling. He seems to have a case.
Continue reading “Decoupling the Staple Story: New York Jurist Challenges Account Over Negligent Stapling Story”
Roy Werbel was shocked, shocked when he found no fruit in his froot loops. Werbel is suing Kellogg’s because he believed Toucan Sam when he declared: “Follow my nose! It always knows! The flavor of froot! Wherever it grows!” Werbel insists that he reasonably assumed “froot” was “fruit.”
Continue reading “Will Toucan Sam Sing on the Stand? Man Sues Kellogg’s Over Fruitless “Froot””
The Vatican appears in need of a serious media consultant. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, has issued a defense that boils down to insisting that implicated priests were not pedophiles but homosexuals who liked young boys — and besides no more than five percent of priests had sex with children . . . and Jews and Protestants do it more.
This promo was for some reason pulled as “over-the-top.” I can’t imagine what they mean . . .
Continue reading “The Nanook Invasion: Hockey Planning, Space Dwelling Polar Bears Attack Earth”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has taken an perfectly Nixonian step of gutting a commission just days before it was to hear expert testimony indicating that Texas executed an innocent man, Cameron Todd Willingham. There is growing evidence that Texas not only convicted an innocent man but fought to prevent him from presenting evidence to prove his innocence. Just days before the hearing before the Texas Forensic Science Commission, Perry dumped the Chairman and declined to reappoint two commission members. The move may block the ability of Craig Beyler, an arson investigation expert, to prove that Willingham was innocent of setting a fire in his home in Corsicana, Texas, that killed his three daughters.