Uber taxi driver Ramy Botros has a curious defense after he allegedly put his hand down the shirt of a 25-year-old female customer: she was asking for it and in Egypt such assaults are considered justified for women wearing such outfits. This of course was in Orlando, but that did not seem to matter in this rather curious use of the cultural defense, something that I have discussed earlier.
Category: Criminal law
b>Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
We previously reported HERE and HERE what many believe to be a grave miscarriage of justice where Montana School Teacher Stacey Dean Rambold was sentenced to Fifteen Years in prison with all but thirty one days suspended after being convicted of the child rape of a fourteen year old student. The victim later committed suicide.
After a public outcry and pressure placed upon the former judge and the prosecutor’s office Judge Randal Spaulding resentenced Rambold, this time to 15 years in prison, with five years of suspended, according to a prosecutor in the case. The court remanded Rambold to custody. He will receive credit for time served under his original sentence.
Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
We previously discussed HERE the case of Caius Veiovis, a murder trial defendant having satanic tattoos and horn-like bumps implemented on his face. The trial raised questions as to whether his appearance might be prejudicial to a jury.
A Springfield Massachusetts jury found Caius guilty after six days of deliberation. The verdict included findings of guilt for kidnapping and intimidation of a witness.
After the reading of the verdict, Caius yelled to the jury, “I’ll see you in Hell!”
Continue reading “Defendant Having Satanic Appearance Convicted Of Murder And Kidnapping”
Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Prosecutors before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague are expected to present closing arguments in the years long trial of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić for eleven counts of war crimes, including genocide charges for his involvement in the massacres of Bosnian Muslims and Ethnic Croats during his reign as the President of the Republika Srpska in the Bosnian war that was waged in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Karadžić was a fugitive from justice from 1996 until his arrest in Belgrade in 2008 where shortly thereafter he was extradited to The Netherlands pending charges before the ICTY. He was preceded in trial by Slobodan Milošević, the former President of Serbia but who died prior to the conclusion of his trial. General Ratko Mladić, a Bosnian Serb military official, is also standing before the ICTY for events during the Srebrenica Massacre.
The prosecution expects that if most of the charges result in convictions, Karadžić likely will remain imprisoned for life.
Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In what promises to be a sign of holding executives liable for their involvement in putting poisonous products into the food supply a Federal Jury convicted former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell of Conspiracy, Obstruction of Justice, Wire Fraud, and other crimes relating to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella that sickened over seven hundred individuals in forty three states and likely killed nine. Federal investigators in 2009 traced tainted peanut butter supplied by Parnell’s business to several producers who then packaged it into peanut butter containing foods according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The seven week trial, the culmination of a five year ordeal, has perhaps in measure brought closure and justice for those suffering damages from executives who knowingly and intentionally conspired to endanger so many.
Below is my column on the resignation of Eric Holder as United States Attorney General. For civil libertarians, Holder’s tenure as Attorney General under President Obama has been one of the most damaging periods in our history with a comprehensive attack on various constitutional rights and principles from free speech to the free press to international law. In recent polling by NBC and the Wall Street Journal, Holder was the second most unpopular government official after the positively radioactive Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
As someone who previously called for Holder’s firing after the investigation of various journalists under national security powers, I am hardly one who can offer congratulatory sentiments for such a record. However, much like President Obama, one has to wonder what could have been if Holder had chosen a more principled and less political approach to his office. Holder is resigning the same week that a federal judge ordered the release of “Fast and Furious” documents after the Justice Department was accused of a pattern of delay and obstruction. Holder was previously held in contempt by Congress for his withholding documents and conflicting accounts to an oversight committee looking into the scandal. Indeed, Holder was looking at an even more aggressive period with the possible loss of the Senate and increased GOP seats in the House.
Ironically, Holder came into office trying to distinguish himself from such disastrous predecessors as Alberto Gonzales but proved no less political or blindly loyal to his own president. Indeed, both men fought aggressively to expand the powers of the presidency and national security laws over countervailing individual rights and separation of powers principles. It will be civil liberties and not civil rights that will be the lasting, and troubling, legacy of Eric Holder. The column is below:
Continue reading “The Holder Years and The Perils Of Politics Over Principle In Government”
Christian Pastor Zafar Bhatti has reportedly been shot and killed by a Pakistani policeman, who also wounded another prisoner, 70-year-old Briton Muhammad Asghar. Both are in jail for blasphemy. Bhatti was a human rights activist fighting for the rights of Christians in the country. His death (and the convenient shooting of another alleged “blasphemer”) is viewed as highly suspicious given the past threats against his life from other prisoners and guards.
One month ago, United States District Court Judge Clarke Waddoups handed down his final ruling in favor of my clients in the Sister Wives case. Utah Attorney General, Sean Reyes has now filed his notice of appeal in the case — a move that will take this historic case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver and potentially to the Supreme Court.
Jeffrey Daday, 36, a Mount Kisco parking cop, is no “nickel and dimer.” No he is a quarter man. On Tuesday, Daday admitted Tuesday that he stole more than $89,000 in quarters during a span of about five years. That is a total of about 365,000 quarters.
Continue reading “New York Parking Employer Admits To Stealing $89,000 in Quarters”
There is a new scandal involving alleged police abuse and false statements. The latest case comes out of Red Bank, Tennessee, where critics allege that officers beat a suspect, 24-year-old Candido Medina-Resendiz, without cause and then lied about the incident in official reports. Warning: this story contains foul language from the reporting of the case.
Continue reading “Tennessee Police Accused Of Beating DUI Suspect And Then Lying About Incident”
China has continued its crackdown on political speech with a truly disgraceful trial of Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti. The prominent scholar has written about the discontent in his region and lack of rights. The Chinese declared the writings as encouraging separatism. While that would not be a crime in any free nation, China handed him a life sentence after this supporters say that he was denied food and then denied copies of the evidence used against him.
There is an interesting backlash in California where civil rights leaders are condemning an African-American actress for alleging racism in her encounter with members of the Los Angeles Police Department. Actress Daniele Watts (who was in “Django Unchained”) accused the LAPD of detaining her and her boyfriend because they are a mixed race couple. Witnesses insisted that, in fact, they were having sex in a car in plain view on a street. An audio tape below has further undermined Watt’s claims of racism. She immediately claims that the only reason that they stopped them was race on the audiotape available here. In the midst of the tape, she freaks out in a conversation with her father but admits that they were “making out” in the course of the diatribe. In a true Hollywood moment, Watts is heard saying “I know my rights, I played a cop on TV and I know that when someone asks for ID you aren’t required to give it to them.”
Seattle’s city prosecutor has announced a rather novel decision to toss out all tickets issued for the public use of marijuana through the first seven months of this year after concluding that virtually all of them were written by one officer who opposed the legalization of pot. City Attorney Pete Holmes announced the dismissal of roughly 100 tickets and moving to refund those people who forked over $27 ticket. Officer, Randy Jokela, 52, reportedly addressed some of the tickets to “Petey Holmes” or wrote that he considered the pot law “silly.”
John Fecteau really knows how to guarantee a maximum sentencing. The Seattle man was arrested for robbery and assault charges after a crime spree. When arrested, police say that Fecteau proclaimed that he loved stabbing people, asked if he severed one victim’s spine, and said that “It is better than doing meth.”
There is a horrific story out of Huntsville, Alabama, where school officials are being sued after a 14-year-old girl with special needs was allegedly used as bait to catch a student sexual predator. A lawsuit states that the girl reluctantly agreed, but that she was then trapped by the boy and anally raped in a bathroom. The school later suggested that the sex may have been consensual and denied responsibility. The case has prompted the Justice Department to file a brief in favor of the girl in the litigation, a relatively rare move in such a case.