We have another shocking video posted by police seeking a vicious attack on an elderly person by teenagers.
The two girls attacked an 87-year-old woman who was punched in the face and had to be taken to the hospital.
Continue reading “Police Seek Two Teenagers After Attack On 89-Year-Old Woman In England”
It is hard to blow an awards ceremony like the one meant to honor Pinellas County deputy Michael Szeliga hosted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving . . . except when you appear stumbling drunk after being sighted walking around in the hallway of the hotel in your boxers.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has issued a blockbuster report that calls for Russia to be banned from international athletics for doping violations and a “deeply rooted culture of cheating at all levels” within Russian athletics. We have previously discussed the lax treatment of cheating by countries like China in international sports. WADA has not only bucked that trend but criticized the long-ridiculed the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for its “inexplicable laissez-fair policy.” Bravo, WADA, Bravo.
A tragic hit-and-run crime in California has rekindled the controversy over our porous borders after it was learned that Ramon Jaime Horta was not only driving on a suspended license but had been deported six times for criminal offenses from the country. Despite his serving time, Horta showed that he was able to move freely back into the country where he ultimately killed Marcello Bisarello in Santa Ana.
Continue reading “Man Arrested In Fatal Hit-And-Run In California Was Previously Deported Six Times”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Nearly a year and a half ago we featured a story describing the plight of the “Kettle Falls Five” who were arrested by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency on charges relating to marijuana cultivation and firearms violations. I am reprinting here portions of my previous article which has many details of the original case. Now, three of these defendants were sentenced to federal prison.
The confusion as to what constitutes lawful medical marijuana grows with federal deference and ten year punishments for doing so, the United States Department of Justice prosecuted five rural Eastern Washington residents accused of growing seventy-four medical marijuana plants in a private collective. Washington State is a Medical Marijuana State. The accused include a seventy year old man who states he uses the medicine to treat pain from a job related injury, his wife for her arthritis, and their son. The patriarch of the family, the accused Larry Harvey, had the charges dropped but has since died of cancer.
While state law at the time permitted the cultivation of up to forty-five plants, federal law prohibits any cultivation. Originally confusion of the numbers of plants that might be permissible under state law (in aggregate) should take into consideration that multiple individuals had separate grows and this led to a misunderstanding. While the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office told the accused to remove those plants in excess of the amounts allowed, the DEA later arrived and raided their farms.
What compounds the severity for these five individuals is that within the thirty-three acre property, two of the defendants’ residence had inside several firearms, including rifles which are used by the family to hunt and for protection from wild animals. Firearms are very common in residences in rural Eastern Washington. Yet, the firearms in relation to the marijuana grow add an additional five year minimum sentence, adding to the defendants’ minimum of ten years imprisonment, something the senior defendant claimed to be a “death sentence.”
What is rather extraordinary in this effort by the department of justice, despite guidelines in not allocating resources to prosecute medical marijuana patients, the defendants claim it was a misunderstanding of Washington’s medical marijuana laws that caused them to go from legal users to being potentially imprisoned for ten years. Many viewed this case as necessitating jury nullification.
My speech this week in New York allowed me the opportunity to return to my favorite haunts in the Big Apple like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. However, one uninterrupted tradition for decades was . . . well interrupted. As I have previously discussed, I love to go to Carnegie Deli. While touristy and over-priced, it still had my favorite corned beef and most importantly my favorite Matzo ball soup. As discussed in April, the deli closed after the discovery that it had been stealing gas for years with a dangerous illegal cut into the gas line – the same crime that resulted in the destruction of a building in New York last year with the loss of life. The deli remains closed and the scandals appear to be piling higher than its famous corned beef sandwich. On the bright side, the despicable conduct of the restaurant has led me to pursue a search for my next favorite deli. This trip brought me to the Second Avenue Deli.
Just when you thought the tragic death of Fox Lake Police Lt. Charles Joseph “Joe” Gliniewicz could not get any sadder. It does. Police now believe that Gliniewicz staged his own death to avoid being exposed as an embezzler of thousands of dollars from a youth program. Police say it was a “carefully stage suicide” that led to a massive manhunt for the assailants. To make matters worse, his wife and son who appeared devastated by the murder of Gliniewicz by unknown assailants are now under investigation themselves. There is even an allegation that he might have sought out a hitman to kill the official who was close to uncovering the the embezzlement.
This picture of actress Sadaf Taherian would seem like most any such photo appearing on social media (beyond the fact that she is obviously especially striking). However, the government in Iran immediately spotted something missing. That’s right, a veil or hijab. As a result, Taherian has fled to the United Arab Emirates to avoid an arrest. In addition, leading actress Chekame Chaman-Mah has fled Iran after committing the offense of defending the right of an actress to post an unveiled image. Iranian officials have declared both women to be in violation of Islamic morality and laws.
Paul Armand Rater, 53, is facing two counts of felony child abuse and one count of felony child endangerment after he gave a loaded and cocked .45-calibre handgun to his 5-year-old granddaughter and left her in the desert. I told her to “shoot any bad guys.”
A Texas woman, Susan Cammack, has been fined $500 and sentenced to two years of probation for her role in serving bogus court orders on a judge and lawyer involved in a foreclosure case against her. Comic claims to be a representative of the sovereign nation of Texas was convicted of issuing fraudulent court papers ordering a judge and lawyer to appear before an “international common law court.” What is interesting about this case is that Cammack received a two year sentence of probation for serving what were clearly meaningless and ineffectual papers. She was little more menacing than someone speaking to herself on a subway platform. Yet, her punishment is roughly the same as former Ohio prosecutor Jason Phillabaum of Cincinnati who was given no jail time and had his law license suspended for just a year for filing a false indictment in an actual criminal case. As I said earlier, the treatment of Phillabaum was shockingly light in comparison to what non-lawyers face in less serious cases. It is not that Cammack’s sentence was excessive. The question is how we deal with the most serious forms of prosecutorial misconduct.
I have previously written about the waste of billions of dollars by the government without any significant discipline for government officials. We have become accustomed to reports of unimaginable corruption and waste in Afghanistan from bags of money delivered to officials to constructing huge buildings to be immediately torn down to buying aircraft that cannot be used. Yet even with the disclosure of our useless campaign against poppy production where we continued to spend billions because no one had the courage to end or change the program, no action was taken against a single individual. Billions simply evaporate and nothing happens, even with public outcry. Now, the John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), has revealed that the government spent $43 million to build a gas station in Afghanistan that should have cost roughly $500,000. As before, it is not clear why there has not been a long list of federal officials suspended pending both potential criminal and civil charges.
The Islamic extremist attacks appear to be continuing unabated in Bangladesh where Muslim extremists are targeting the free speech community. The latest victim is publisher Faisal Arefin Deepan of the Jagriti Prokashoni publishing house, a truly courageous voice for free speech and human rights. Deepen was murdered in his office, the latest in a campaign of terror launched against writers and publishers. Earlier publisher Ahmed Rahim Tutul and two writers were shot and stabbed by three men in the office of the Shudhdhoswar publishing house.
It looks like we already have an entry for the 2016 Spooky torts listing. Assistant Prosecutor Chris White clearly does not like spiders, even fake ones. That much was clear given his response to finding fake spiders scattered around the West Virginia office for Halloween. White pulled a gun and threatened to shoot the fake spiders, explaining that he is “deathly afraid of spiders.” It appears that his arachnophobia (fear of spiders) was not matched by a hoplophobia (fear of firearms).
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Most DUI arrests are rather uninteresting, others have some rather bizarre circumstances, as is the case where the Washington State Patrol arrested Everett, WA Police Lieutenant Jimmy Phillips for suspected DUI. This in itself was not extremely inordinate but what truly struck me as odd were a number of particulars alleged during the incident that made me wonder, “What were you thinking!”
There are certain commonalities manifest in the run of the mill drunk. Every law enforcement officer has heard these excuses and they oddly seem to be taught by a common teacher in Drunk Driving 101, but we would hope that the very ones who see such graduations would not enroll in the course themselves.
Continue reading “Career Limiting Moves: WSP Arrests Everett Officer For DUI”
A former prosecutor in Ohio, Jason Phillabaum of Cincinnati, has had his law license suspended for a year after pleading guilty to adding a charge to a criminal indictment and then signing the document. Frankly, I am astonished that the Ohio bar considers this misconduct as warranting only a year suspensions as opposed to disbarment. This constituted not only the creation of a false indictment and false filing but the denial of basic constitutional rights and protections in our system. It is hard to image a more serious form of prosecutorial misconduct and yet he will be practicing again in Ohio in a matter of 12 months?