A Virginia teen may have just become a lock for this year’s Darwin award after he was arrested for alleging pretending to be a police officer. He reportedly picked the wrong car . . . with an actual police officer inside.
Category: Criminal law
It is common to get advice like “never look a polar bear in the eye.” The same appears to be true with Dayton police officers. Driver John Felton has posted a video of a pull over by a police officer who told him that he was pulled over because he “made direct eye contact” with him while driving by.
According to various media reports and Amnesty International, an all-male village council in India sentenced two sisters, including a 15 year old girl, to be raped as punishment for their brother running away with a married woman from a higher caste. The accounts state that Meenakshi Kumari, who is 23, and her younger sister, will then be paraded naked with their faces blackened through the streets as part of this disgraceful, primitive sentence.
Former TV judge Joe Brown, 66, has surrendered to Tennessee deputies to begin serving a five-day jail term for contempt of court. Brown was held in contempt by Magistrate Judge Harold Horne for an outburst in Juvenile Court in March 2014. He took the issue all the way up to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which denied Brown’s application to appeal a Court of Appeals upholding the ruling. Brown called the court a “circus” and a “sorry operation.” Of course real judges do not have producers and set designers. When Horne told him to stop, Brown did not. He gave him a day in jail but Brown continued until he had five days in jail.
Continue reading ““Judge” Brown Goes To Jail Over Contemptuous Encounter With Real Judge”
Today the briefs of the Brown family arrived at the Denver courthouse in the Sister Wives case now before the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. (The actual electronic filing was made the night before under the federal ECF system). I continue to serve as lead counsel to the Brown family in their successful challenge of the criminalization of polygamy in Utah. Last year, United States District Court Judge Clarke Waddoups issued the final decision striking down the cohabitation crime used against polygamist in Utah. The State has appealed to the federal court of appeals in Denver and below is our defense of that decision by Judge Waddoups. I want to thank my friend and local counsel (and GW Alum) Adam Alba and all of the students who have worked so hard on this case over the years. This brief benefited from the assistance of Patrick Fenior and Emily Hoyle as well as assistance from GW grad (and my local counsel in the Al-Timimi case) Thomas Huff and my assistant Seth Tate.
Continue reading “The Brown Family Files Briefs In Sisters Wives Case In Denver”
Timothy Jason Martinez, was just a week ago working a $160,000 a year job as the former deputy superintendent of Albuquerque Public Schools. That is over as he now faces multiple felony charges, including child sexual assault. What is astonishing is that Albuquerque appeared clueless about prior arrests in hiring Martinez as the second in command of the large school system.
Des Moines Officer Vanessa Miller will not face charges after a grand jury looked at her shooting of Ryan Bolinger, 28. Miller shot Bolinger from her car after he approached her car by “walking with a purpose.” Miller had chased Bolinger after he got out of his car earlier and began dancing.
We often discuss the “perils of the press” in humorous stories of the unexpected for journalists. However, we are often reminded of the dangers faced by reporters in their daily jobs. Today offered one such tragic example from Moneta, Virginia. Vester Lee Flanagan, who used the name on-air of Bryce Williams, shot and killed WDBJ reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27. He then posted the filmed event and tweeted about it. It is a bizarre and chilling example of how social media has become intertwined with such crimes in our society. Flanagan later shot himself in a confrontation with police.
Continue reading “Former Reporter Guns Down News Crew On Live Television”
One of the most interesting aspects of the case against Jared Fogle, Subway pitchman, for pornography was the use of a dog named Bear. While incorrectly called a “porn sniffing bloodhound,” Bear is actually one of five dogs trained to find hidden electronic data devices. Bear found the thumbdrive used to incriminate Fogle.
Continue reading “Meet Bear, The Dog That Helped Nail Jared of Subway”
There is a growing outcry in Tuscaloosa, Ala. after a police officer fatally shot a man wielding a “large metal spoon in a threatening manner.” Jeffory Ray Tevis, 50, was killed after a confrontation with the officer on his balcony. Police say that he may have been “suffering from a mental episode” . . . and then he grabbed a spoon.
Continue reading “Alabama Officer Shoots And Kills Man Wielding A Large Spoon”
We have been following the disgusting acts of the Islamic State in wiping out any culture, art, or education not directly advancing Islam. The Muslim extremists have bulldozed or dynamited ancient church and temples as well as museums under its twisted view of Islam. Now one of the greatest jewels of ancient Syria reportedly has called, at least in part. Reports state that ISIS has blown up the famed Baalshamin Temple at Syria’s ancient ruins of Palmyra. The 2,000-year-old Roman-era city was also the site of the beheading of one of the world’s leading archeologists.
Continue reading “Palmyra Falls: ISIS Reportedly Blows Up Ancient Temple of Baalshamin”
Either Ayoub El-Khazzani is a terrorist or one of the unluckiest and most misunderstood men in the world. El-Khazzani is accused of wounding passengers on a French train in a foiled terrorist attack. He was in possession of an AK-47 assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. His former lawyer, however, says that he is “dumbfounded” by the allegations and that he simply found the AK-47 assault rifle “by chance.” If the lawyer’s account is accurate, his defense appears that he was planning to hold up the train and then flee. He is simply a misunderstood wannabe bank robber.
On August 9, a Philadelphia police officer Sgt. Chad Culbreath was allegedly speeding down a street and ran over a woman’s pet dog, Phoebe. Sidara D. Son says that Culbreath refused to let her take her dog to a hospital and allegedly said “it’s just a dog.”
We previously discussed the disturbing ethics cases against Texas district Judge Elizabeth E. Coker who was caught sending text messages to prosecutors to help them with a case. Coker is now stepping down in a voluntary agreement with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, though some have objected that such a voluntary departure is not sufficient punishment for such an egregious lack of ethics.