Officer James Harris in DeLand, Florida has been fired after he ran over a man who was fleeing police. Marlon Robert Brown, 38, was being pulled over for a seatbelt violation when he fled. He won’t do that again. The video shows Harris pursuing Brown in his car and when Brown trips, running over the man.
Category: Criminal law
Joel T. Jackson, 50, of Manchester has a curious defense after he shot and killed a one-year dog named Chincee because he has an abnormal fear of dogs. His counsel added that “He was surprised a BB gun would have that kind of effect.” He could receive as much as six months for the killing. Notably, however, the intentional shooting of a family pet remains only a misdemeanor — given less protection than breaking into a shed and stealing property.
Former Kansas Attorney General and current Liberty University law professor Phill Kline is now indefinitely suspended from the practice of law due to his investigation of abortion clinics run by the late George Tiller and by Planned Parenthood. Tiller was murdered in 2009 while attending church in Wichita with his wife. While opting not to disbar Kline, the Kansas Supreme Court found “clear and convincing evidence” of professional misconduct (including the violation of 11 rules) to warrant indefinite suspension.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
Back in July of this year, we discussed a successful request by oil giant Chevron to subpoena 9 years of metadata from countless defendants and non-defendants. This was arguably an attempt to attack a $19 Billion dollar judgment handed down by an Ecuadorian court against Chevron by going after the parties involved in the lawsuit.
Chevron was not deterred when the United States Supreme Court refused to review the judgment. It merely went on the attack and found an allegedly friendly judge in New York to assist in refusing to pay the judgment owed to various indigenous communities that were devastated by Chevron’s predecessor’s actions in the rainforests where it was drilling for oil. We need to revisit this issue now that the RICO action filed by Chevron started this week in New York. Continue reading “Chevron Owes $19 Billion and Doesn’t Want to Pay!”
at Goblin Valley State Park
by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
Public parks and protected lands belong to us all as our collective natural heritage. By preserving and acting as stewards of these natural treasures, we aim to preserve them for the enjoyment their majesty and beauty brings for us and for our children’s children. One of these parks is Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. Since 1974, the unusual rock formations there known as goblins or hoodoos have enriched the lives of many thousands of visitors. These formations of sandstone, siltstone and shale are caused by differential rates of erosion and are a great example of the stark beauty of the high desert. Some of these formations are 200 million years old.
So naturally, it would be fun to push one down.
Even a young one that’s only about 20 million years old.
There are times when our discussion of recent stories touching on the law and policy can hit too close to home. This is one such tragic circumstance. George Washington biomedical engineering student Rahul Gupta (left), has been charged with the killing of a Georgetown University law student, Mark Edward Waugh. Both men came from McLean, where I live, and attended one of the two high schools here, Langley. Gupta’s defense will be made more difficult by incriminating statements made upon his first encounter with police.
Continue reading “GW Student Arrested In Stabbing Death Of Georgetown Law Student”
There is an interesting story out of Washington state where a Washington state psychologist has been suspended from practice after a prostitute took off with his laptop containing files on 652 clients. Dr. Sunil Kakar, 46, reportedly left his computer with the prostitute while he ran out to an ATM machine. The computer was reportedly left as “collateral” for payment for the prostitute.
There is an interesting decision out of the King County Bar Association after the bar grappled with questions from lawyers as to whether they can smoke marijuana after the state legalized pot despite that the fact that it is still deemed a crime under federal law. The bar associate said that the ethical lawyer could smoke pot so long as it did not interfere with their ability to represent clients. While some would question that standard, the same personal responsibility on consumption applies to alcohol use by lawyers.
Continue reading “Seattle Bar: Lawyers Can Ethically Smoke Pot”
Some of you may recall that in 2011 we discussed the efficiency and logic of Portland officials dumping 8 million gallons of drinking water after a man urinated in the city’s open reservoir. Well, it has now happened again. After a 21-year-old man admitted urinating in a Mt. Tabor reservoir last Wednesday, the city cut off its key water supply and dumped 7.8 million gallons of drinking water. The question, again, is the logic of such a move. Even if one does not accept that, as industry experts often spouted, “the solution to pollution is dilution,” this is such a tiny amount of impurities as to be untraceable. This would be no more than 12 ounces within 8 million gallons of water.
There are two arrests in Florida after the suicide of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick (left) who was bullied on the Internet, including at least one mocking posting by one of the girls after the suicide. The two girls (aged 14 and 12) have been charged with felonies.
The Cour de Cassation in Paris, France’s highest appeals court, dealt another legal blow to the Church of Scientology in upholding the convictions for “organized fraud” by church officials. The court rejected claims of religious freedom by Scientologist lawyers and found that the Church was engaged in fraudulent practices that led to the convictions and $812,000 in fines. Specifically mentioned in the allegations were the Church’s Celebrity Center and a Scientology bookshop in Paris. The court also upheld the convictions of Scientology’s leader in Paris, Alain Rosenburg, and the Celebrity Centre’s former president Sabine Jacquart for taking financial advantage of elderly members of the Church. They were sentenced to two-year suspended prison sentences as well as being handed €30,000 fines for organized fraud. Continue reading “French Court Upholds Convictions Of Scientology For “Organized Fraud””
The Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Allen Derrick has been fired after a video was put on YouTube showing him handcuffing a woman after an argument with her in a Columbia, South Carolina restaurant. The police report says that Derrick approached the woman but that 23-year-old Brittany Ball showed no interest in him. They then got into an argument. Things then went from bad to worst as the video below vividly demonstrates.
Alabama Rep. Steve Hurst (R-Munford) is hellbent on castration it seems. Despite the fact that his colleagues blocked his bill to legalize castration of convicted child molesters if their victims were under the age of 12 (and make them pay for the procedure), Hurst has reintroduced the legislation.
Continue reading “Alabama Legislator Reintroduces Castration Bill”
The Obama Administration — with the clear support of Democratic and Republic leadership — has continued to eviscerate privacy in the United States despite recent controversies over NSA spying on Americans. The most recent report details how the National Security Agency is collecting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts, including those of Americans. The reported collection program is a new operation that intercepts e-mail address books and “buddy lists” from instant messaging services. It is the latest effort by the Obama Administration to turn this into a fishbowl society where citizens and their associations are entirely transparent to the government. Once again, the most amazing aspect of this story is the complete lack of response or outcry. President Obama has succeeded, it seems, in changing the expectations of privacy in our society — a change that is unlikely to be reversed to the great detriment of civil liberties in America. It is the latest example of why it is increasingly curious for Americans to refer to this country as “the land of the free” as we construct a massive internal security state and unchecked executive powers.
It appears that the greatest danger to piracy is vanity. A notorious Somali pirate leader known as “Loud Mouth” has been captured by Belgian police in a creative sting operation. Mohammed Abdi Hassan was lured to the Brussels Airport in the belief that he was going to sign an agreement to make a movie on his life. He made an estimated fortune of hundreds of millions and recently announced that he was going to move from piracy to politics — a nature transition in any country. Somalia has long been criticized for protecting such pirates but it was vanity that led to his undergoing.
Continue reading ““Loud Mouth” The Pirate Arrested In Belgium In Fake Movie Deal Meeting”