Category: Criminal law

Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Society

Egypt President Pardons Imprisoned Al Jazeera Reporters

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Flag of EgyptWe have followed the plight of several reporters for the news medium Al Jazeera who were imprisoned and subjected to various appeals on behalf of the prosecution to ensure their place amongst the incarcerated, accused under dubious evidence of involvement with terrorist organizations and the crime of reporting of false information. The courts even went so far as to accuse them of doing the work of the devil. (HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE)

For over a year there has been much outcry in the world media and the public about the abuses against free speech, journalists, and citizens; especially focused it was on these reporters. Now, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi grants a pardon to these Al Jazeera reporters.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society, Torts

New Jersey Teenager Pulls Off Helmet Of Lineman And Uses It To Assault Him . . . Officials Let Him Continue To Play

Screen Shot 2015-09-24 at 11.05.10 AMWe discussed this week the case of two Texas teenage football players who viciously attacked a ref under orders from one of the coaches. The shocking incident was captured on videotape. Now an eighteen-year-old Linden High School (NJ) football player is on videotape (below) pulling off the helmet of an opponent’s helmet and then hitting him in the head with it. After an outcry, supporters insisted that the opposing player had used a racial slur and cheated. Once again, however, (as with the same allegation in Texas) a physical assault is not a justified response to either alleged act.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering

Illinois Prosecutor Involved in Bizarre Scene At Sex Shop Agrees To Suspension Of License

Screen Shot 2015-09-24 at 11.09.33 PMWe previously discussed the bizarre case of Cook County prosecutor, Sarah Naughton, who was involved in a drunken, swearing, biting incident at a sex shop after a Cubs game. The Illinois Supreme Court has now accepted a consent suspension for Naughton.

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Criminal law, Lawyering, Politics, Society

State Department Contradicts Clinton’s Long-Standing Account On E-Mails

170px-Msc2011_dett-clinton_0298StateDepartmentThe Clinton email scandal continues to get worse by the day with State Department officials directly contradicting the long-standing account given by Hillary Clinton. Clinton has long maintained that she turned over a portion of her emails (those not deleted as “personal”) after receiving a letter that went to her and three of her predecessors: Madeline Albright, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice as a routine inquiry. The gist is that there was nothing alarming about her exclusive use of a server under her control rather than the secured State Department system. State Department officials now confirm that the request was specifically related to the discovery that Clinton was using a personal email system as her exclusive means of communication. This revelation occurs the same week that the FBI has announced that it has already retrieved some of the emails and that the Clinton staffers who “wiped” the system did a poor job that left the material easily accessible — deepening the earlier concerns over the presence of what is now confirmed to be classified material on Clinton’s unsecured server. The FBI sources described Clinton’s IT person as “not very good.”

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

Le Pen To Stand Trial For “Inciting Racial Hatred” Due To Criticism of Muslims In France

Le_Pen,_Marine-9586Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front, has been criminally charged with inciting racial hatred in the latest example of the rollback on basic free speech rights in France and other European nations. I have been a critic of the crackdown on free speech in France, including the hypocrisy of the government in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. In this case, Le Pen compared Muslim street prayers to a Nazi-like occupation, a statement that should be clearly protected as political speech in France. Instead, she will be pulled before a tribunal in another example of how free speech is being eviscerated by anti-discrimination and hate speech laws.

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Criminal law, International, Military

Bacha Bazi: U.S. Soldiers Told Not To Interfere With Afghan Officers Raping Boys At Base Out Of Respect For Cultural Practice

3251700552Marine Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley, 21, of Oceanside, N.Y., died Aug. 10 in Garmsir, Afghanistan, while supporting combat operations. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force. There is an incredibly disturbing story in the New York Times this week where soldiers have reported being told by American officials to ignore the rape and abuse of Afghan boys at a base by Afghan officers so not to interfere with a cultural practice. The boys were brought to the base to be raped as part of what Afghans call bacha bazi, literally “boy play.” Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father that he would lay on his bunk at night and listen to the screaming of the boys as they were sexually abused by Afghan officers. Buckley went to his superiors and was allegedly told not to interfere. Buckley was later shot to death by an Afghan policeman at the base in 2012.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering, Society, Torts

Lawyer and Intern Charged With Robbery and Murder After Celebration At Bar

Screen-Shot-2015-09-15-at-5.42.09-PMThere is a tragic but interesting criminal case set for trial in San Francisco involving a tenants rights attorney and a claim of self-defense during a robbery. Eviction Defense Collaborative staff attorney Carlos Argueta, 31, and former intern (and Swiss native who lives in London) Pascal Krummenacher, 21, are charged with murder after they alleged were robbed outside a bar where they were celebrating the end of Krummenacher’s internship. Argueta is accused of stabbing to death James Thomas, 61. There is a videotape in the case reviewed by the Examiner.

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Criminal law, Society

Seattle Police Officer Sacked After Questionable Arrest Of Man Carrying Golf Club

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

Cynthia Whitlatch
Cynthia Whitlatch

After a internal affairs investigation of several alleged actions of a Seattle Police Officer, Chief Kathleen O’Toole terminated the employment of Officer Cynthia Whitlatch following the detention and arrest of a citizens for Obstructing a Law Enforcement officer stemming from a claim, later ruled to be false, that the citizen swung a golf club at her. The termination, according to SPD, did not rely solely on this incident but was resulting from similar incidents involving citizen contacts and allegations of racially inappropriate statements during the internal affairs investigation.

The incident should serve as a reminder to those in similar positions of Ms. Whitlatch of the importance of proper discretion and of accepting one’s faults and not blaming everyone else for mistakes. Nevertheless the incident elicited an apology to the citizenry and the accused person for an incident that should never have occurred.

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Criminal law, International, Society

Qatar Prince Who Claimed Immunity In High-Speed Chase Flees The Country

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 8.29.43 PMWe have been discussing the controversy over a man from Qatar who went on a dangerous high-speed chase in a yellow Ferrari and then both threatened a reporter and claimed diplomatic immunity. He informed the reporter that he could kill him with utter immunity from prosecution and topped off that threat by saying “F*** America.” It is now confirmed that this disgraceful thug is a member of Qatar’s ruling family: Sheik Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar’s ruling family. Al-Thani claimed immunity but does not actually have it. However, by some incredible sequence of events, Al-Thani was allowed to flee the country to avoid any accountability.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

Chicago Prosecutor Fired After Videotape Contradicts His Sworn Testimony On Witness Statement

ct-met-officer-shot-paris-sadler-0322-mh-jpg-20150828mosaic_anita143x176When the case of the shooting of a Chicago police officer in 2012 came to the chambers of Cook County Circuit Judge Thaddeus Wilson, the court saw something that it said was obvious to anyone who has done any practice in the criminal law: the statement of the mother of the suspect Paris Sadler was free of any corrections or edits. Since the mother Talaina Cureton said that she had edited and corrected the statement prepared by Assistant Cook County state’s attorney Joseph Lattanzio, it was a curious fact. However, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, long criticized for her policies such as prosecuting citizens who dare to video police in public, fought to block any effort to reexamine the statement and denied that her office omitted critical information. Now, it appears that one of those videotapes that Alvarez hates, existed showing Cureton editing the statement. Lattanzio has been fired. However, once again, without the videotape, Alvarez’s office would have likely succeeded in blocking the challenge and protecting the prosecutorial misconduct.

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Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law

Texas Teen Named Mohamed Arrested After Making Digital Clock And Taking It To School

CPAFMKrUkAABI2aAhmed Mohamed, 14, had thought that he had achieved something that would garner praise at at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. He had made a homemade digital clock from a pencil case. Instead, teachers called police and Ahmed was interrogated and taken to the police station on suspicion of a bomb hoax. UPDATE: some critics have expressed doubt over the clock as well as the narrative.
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Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Society

University of Kentucky Student Arrested After Crashing Drone At Football Game

8775955_GA University of Kentucky law student, Peyton Wilson, 24, has been charged with wanton endangerment after allegedly flying a drone at Commonwealth Stadium just before the season opener game against Louisiana-Lafayette. It is the latest such case of drones harassing or endangering people on beaches, streets, or stadiums.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Police Charge 13-Year-old Boy With Assault for Kissing Girl On A Dare

PrisonCellWe have yet another child criminally charged for something that at one time would have been treated as a mere conduct issue warranting a note to a parent. In Pikesville, Maryland, a 13-year-old will be charged with second-degree assault for kissing a 14-year-old girl on a dare. This absurd case began with school officials calling police who pursued the minor on criminal assault charges.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Man With Qatar Plates Races Through Beverly Hills, Almost Hit Bystanders, Assaults Reporter, and Then Claims Diplomatic Immunity

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 8.29.43 PMWe have periodically discussed the use of diplomatic immunity to avoid criminal conduct in the United States. The latest such case occurred in Beverly Hills where two men raced a white Porsche 911 and a yellow Ferrari LaFerrari through the streets of the city — running stop signs and barely missing pedestrians. When the yellow car was followed to a $10 million home, the driver threatened the reporter and claimed diplomatic immunity — allegedly adding “F*** America” for good measure. He even allegedly told the reporter that he could murder him and not be held accountable.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering, Politics, Society

The Dereliction of Duty: Texas Prosecutor Found To Have Intentionally Withheld Critical Evidence In Latest Of Long-Line of Ethical Violations

J_DutyThere is a curious case out of Georgetown, Texas, where Williamson County District Judge Rick Kennon has ruled that Williamson County District Attorney Jana Duty intentionally withheld evidence in the murder trial of Crispin Harmel. However, Kennon refused a defense motion to bar a second trial under the double jeopardy clause. There is no indication of any punishment for Ms. Duty for this case. She continues to serve as a lawyer and a prosecutor in Texas. She has however racked up an impressive number of allegations of misconduct and was sent to jail in August for contempt. However, it is odd not to see a direct referral by the court. I can understand the ruling, though the Texas Court of Appeals recently extended double jeopardy protections to a case where prosecutors intentionally forced a mistrial to avoid an acquittal. However, at a minimum, one would expect a court to deal separately with the violation of her core obligations to the court and the bar.

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