Michael Wilson, 32, is accused of an extraordinary crime in rigging his front door to electrocute his estranged, pregnant wife. Police found the booby trap and arrested Wilson, who is now charged with attempted aggravated battery on a pregnant person and theft of a firearm. (The gun charge is related to his taking his father-in-law’s gun from his wife’s house).
Continue reading “Florida Man Arrested After Allegedly Trying To Electrocute His Estranged Wife”
Like many football fans, Republican Rep. Milo Smith is fed up with the protests by NFL players during the anthem. However, while many fans are staying away from games (setting record low attendance numbers), Smith wants to require NFL owners to reimburse fans who object to the protests. While I have expressed my own opposition to any demonstrations during the national anthem, I have previously stated that the ultimate decision rests with the team owners. Like any business owner, a NFL owner can insist that employees refrain from protests during employment hours and activities. However, this legislation would raise serious legal concerns and would likely not survive a legal challenge.
When Wilmer Lara Garcia allegedly decided to steal a Honda Civic, he wore a rather incongruous choice of teeshirt reading “Trust Me.” He did leave a memorable mugshot however with the Fairfax County police.
Continue reading “Virginia Man Features “Trust Me” Teeshirt in His Mugshot For Auto Theft”
For the last year, I have been criticizing over-wrought and at times irresponsible legal analysis proclaiming “slam dunk” criminal cases and long-sought “smoking gun” discovery sealing the fate of President Donald Trump or his close associates. This includes months in which legal analysts referred to the crime of collusion despite there being no such crime. Unfortunately, this trend continues with the recent interview of Jill Wine-Banks, a former Watergate prosecutor, who told MSNBC that Trump’s recent tweets can constitute “obstruction of justice, witness intimidation, and it’s obstructing justice by saying to agents you better not dig too deep, you better not find anything because I will attack you.” I can see little support for such a position in the criminal code or past cases.
Michael Joseph Oleksik, 23, has a curious crime alleged in Florida. He reportedly became upset when an ATM machine gave him too much money so he proceeded to pummel the machine. It is not clear why he was enraged by being over-paid, but any concern for the bank’s assets did not extend to the machine itself.
Continue reading “Man Arrested For Beating Up ATM Machine After Being Given Too Much Money”
In Minnesota, there is a troubling case brought by Rice County Attorney John Fossum who has confirmed that he has charged a 14-year-old girl with felony child pornography for sending a fellow teen a selfie of herself. In such a twisted logic, the child is both the victim and the felon of child pornography.
Continue reading “Minnesota Teen Charged With Child Pornography For Sending Selfie”
Many of us are excited to see the new biopic “Darkest Hour” on the towering historical figure of Winston Churchill. What is less welcomed is a truly ridiculous warning added to the move that “the depictions of tobacco smoking are based solely on artistic consideration.” It is not even clear what smoking “based solely on artistic consideration” means but is clearly meant as a gesture to those who would immediately run from the film in shock at the scene of a twentieth century leader smoking. It turns out that while, “History is written by the victors,” it is rewritten by cringing Hollywood producers.
Continue reading “Churchill Biopic Features Warning Against Second Hard Smoke”
A feminist activist from the extremist group Femen ran onto the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Monday and tried to steal the baby Jesus. The woman screaming “God is woman” was tackled by Vatican gendarme. The group identified the culprit as Alisa Vinogradova and proudly declared her to be a “sextremist”. This is not the only effort his season to “jack” Jesus. These cases represent a convergence of the Corpus delicti and the Corpus Christi.
Below is my column in the Hill Newspaper on an annual list of Christmas torts and mishaps. Santas feature prominently this year.
Continue reading “Christmas Torts: The 2018 Listing Of Holiday Mishaps and Madness”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
I received this week a true gem of a phishing e-mail. I have to admit however that I was a bit disappointed in its transparency.
Usually the notion of the Confidence Man of the past involves lavishing praise on his mark. Since the 1990s when a flim-flam attempted to scam a person they often provide respect by extending the courtesies of a learned barrister representing wealthy Nigerian politicians or royalty. But it seems cynicism finally overcame this fraud and it consumed him.
But then again, this onerous email might act as a filter to winnow out the intelligent from the truly gullible who are more easily victimized.
The University of Virginia has reversed a decision of VA student council to refuse to recognize a conservative student organization because it catered to conservative students. This absurd decision was based, according to Ty Zirkle, UVA student council’s vice president for organizations, on a strained reading of state law. The decision was in sharp contrast to other groups which cater to shared viewpoints. The concern should be with the selective application of this perceived rule by the student council.
There is an interesting hearing to be held in Minneapolis where a court will decide whether a new trial is warranted for Michael Smith, who has a record of offenses including fourth-degree assault convictions in 2005 and 2006. He is challenging his conviction four years ago after two jurors have stated that their votes were swayed by another juror calling him a “banger from the hood.” While statements of prosecutors are often the basis for post-conviction appeals, this is a statement from other jurors in deliberations that are rarely the subject of such detailed review.
Glen Alveris has a curious way of impressing a girl. He first shot an innocent woman walking her dog to impress his girlfriend with how “crazy” he was and then stabbed the girlfriend when we was clearly not impressed enough. He is likely to impress the heck out of a jury in New Orleans.
Gregory Lu is a student at the University of California San Diego who felt that all of the coverage over the acquittal of Jose Inez Garcia Zarate was missing sufficient consideration for his victim, Kate Steinle. Much of the coverage turned on the status of illegal immigrants like Zarate and their dreams in coming to the country. Accordingly, Lu posted 150 posters with her face and the words “She had dreams too.” The fliers were immediately taken down and Lu was informed that he was to report to the Office for the Prevention of Harassment & Discrimination due of an “online incident report.”
The Indiana Attorney General is investigating an Indiana hotel and is accused of a truly outrageous practice of charging customers hundreds of dollars when they write bad reviews of the hotel. Katrina Arthus and her husband were hit with a $350 fine when they panned the Abbey Inn & Suites on a social media site. They complained about the room smelling of sewage and the sheets were dirty. That led to the fine for disclosing their opinions and later a lawsuit by Arthus.
Continue reading “Indiana Hotel Charges Guests $350 For Writing Bad Review”