Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Greg Damm is the focus of a blistering condemnation by the trial and appellate courts of his alleged prosecutorial misconduct in a Las Vegas case. The case against five individuals, attorneys Daniel Chapman and Sean Flanagan, involved alleged securities trading violations. Damm is accused for failing to turn over 650 pages of critical evidence after telling the court that all evidence had been produced for the defense. Continue reading “Dammed if You Don’t: Ninth Circuit Dismisses Criminal Case Due to Flagrant Prosecutorial Abuse”
Category: Courts
Even though in a city that prides itself on “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” Elizabeth Halverson has achieved national infamy for conduct as a judge that allegedly ranges from having a bailiff rub her back to sleeping in the courthouse to making her husband swear under oath that he has done the chores at home. Now the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission is starting a week of hearings to remove her from the bench. Continue reading “Nevada Judge Halverson Faces Possible Removal Over Bizarre Conduct”
Six members of the Philadelphia police department are under investigation after the airing of a video shot from a helicopter of them kicking and punching three suspects after a traffic stop. Continue reading “Shock Video: Six Officers Under Investigation for Taped Arrest and Beating”
The controversy over Pennsylvania judge Deborah Griffin is over. The state supreme court has removed her from the bench due to her guilty plead to credit card fraud 25 years ago.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Judge Deborah Griffin Removed From Bench for Concealment of Prior Crime”
For Judge Roy Pearson, made infamous worldwide with his $54 million law suit over a missing pair of pants from a cleaners, has now filed yet another lawsuit. This time, he is seeking $1 million to get his job back plus damages. On one level, this is an improvement of 54 times over his last lawsuit, but he is still likely to be taken to the cleaners again in court. Continue reading “Judge Pearson Returns With New Suit (lawsuit, that is)”
Former judge Richard McLean and attorney Edith Stevens appear to have had an eye on some land of neighbors Don and Susie Kirlin for some time. They got their wish when another judge, District Judge James C. Klein ruled that a mysterious path that appeared on the property gave them possession of 34 percent of the Kirlins’ lot on Hardscrabble Drive. Continue reading “A Judge Runs Through It: Family Loses Land by Adverse Possession to Colorado Judge”
There is yet another allegation of undue influence by a campaign contributors on the Texas Supreme Court. A closely divided court gave home builder Bob Perry a major victory in reversing an $800,000 arbitration award to Jane and Robert Cull. Perry happens to be the largest contributor to judicial campaigns in Texas as curious interest of a home builder in the make up of the state bench. Continue reading “Money Well Spent? Major Donor Receives Major Victory Before the Texas Supreme Court”
Ginnah Muhammad is a Muslim woman in Michigan who was forced to decide whether to violate her religious principles (in removing a veil before testifying) or to lose her small-claims lawsuit. Muhammad wears a full hijab as well as a niqab, a veil that covers all but a 2-inch space for her eyes.When she refused, Hamtramck district court in 2006 dismissed her case. She has not appealed to the federal court. Continue reading “Not-So-Blind Justice: Muslim Woman Appeals Ruling Over Wearing of the Veil in Court”
The Supreme Court has taken the case of a breakthrough case where the Ninth Circuit had held that a wrongly convicted man could sue the prosecutor who was allegedly responsible for injustice. The expectation is that the Court will carve out an exception for prosecutors — further insulating abusive prosecutors from responsibility for their acts. Continue reading “Supreme Court Takes Prosecutorial Abuse Case”
It appears that, while U.S. courts are jettisoning privacy rights and expanding the powers of the police in various areas, the Supreme Court of Canada is moving in the opposite direction: actually fighting to preserve privacy. In an important ruling, the Court held that police cannot use dogs to randomly sniff briefcases, book bags etc. They will have to show reasonable suspicion for such searches. Continue reading “Canada Puts Leash on Use of Drug-Sniffing Dogs”
The Bush Administration has long had difficulty in terrorism, assembling the worst record of losses of an modern Administration. Now, in the Liberty City case of six defendants accused of plotting to try to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, they are going to try a THIRD time to get a jury to believe them. This is not a matter of the law of terrorism but the law of averages. Despite the strikingly similar reaction of the prior two juries, the Justice Department just hopes that it can still find people who will not question the unconvincing case against these individuals. Continue reading “Playing the Law of Averages: Justice Department to Try Sears Tower Defendants a Third Time”
New Hampshire Superior Court Judge Patricia Coffey resigned after she was suspended for three years by the state Supreme Court for dealings considered fraudulent and dishonest by her colleagues. Coffey’s demise is tied to a fraudulent property transfer involving her husband, John Coffey was barred as an attorney over the controversy. Continue reading “New Hampshire Judge Resigns Under Allegations of Fraudulent Conduct”
Phillip Miles, of South Carolina, was sentenced by a Moscow court to more than three years in prison for smuggling hunting ammunition into Russia. He had brought a box of 20 rifle shells for a friend who had a Winchester rifle. Stupid to be sure, but three years? Continue reading “American Pastor Sentenced to Three Years in Russia for Smuggling Ammunition”
A federal judge In New Orleans has ruled that the city of Slidell must take down a portrait of Jesus on the wall at Slidell City Court. While the damages are nominal, the city will now pay legal fees and costs for an obviously unconstitutional act and attack on the principle of separation of church and state. Judge Jim Lamz helped bring about this loss by refusing to order the portrait removed. While it has been a few years since I lived in Louisiana, Slidell did not seem like a city with money to burn. Yet, it seems willing to waste money not only on this litigation but the salaries of the attorneys who told them that they could get away with this obvious violation. Continue reading “Jesus Has Left the Building: Courthouse Loses Fight Over Portrait of Jesus”
The Supreme Court has handed down the much anticipated ruling over Kentucky’s use of lethal injection. In a fractured decision, the Court upheld the ruling for the state. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the decision, though his actual decision only garnered three votes. In the fractured opinions below, the majority agreed only in the result. two justices dissented: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter. Continue reading “Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection”