There is a highly disturbing case out of New York where a Hudson Valley anesthesiologist, Thomas Pfeiffer, 44, had been charged with strangulation, abortion and assault after he allegedly choked a woman and forced her to swallow a “morning after” pill after she told him she was pregnant. The abortion charge is relatively rare in criminal cases.
Category: Criminal law
Yesterday, we discussed the story of two men who celebrated the holiday by ruining it for everyone else. Brandon Ancell, 19, and Brandon Chait, 18, followed a UPS truck and stole gifts arriving at homes. Now, a Massachusetts woman has joined this ignoble list after she was captured on security cameras stealing several hundred dollars of holiday wreaths from the Sunshine Farm in Sherborn, Massachusetts. She does not appear to be too hard up for cash since she pulled up in a Range Rover. Well, at least it was not a small dog with antlers tied to its head.
There are two separate controversies this week over rape stories that have been challenged by critics. Both stories involve leading U.S. universities. Unlike the Duke Lacrosse controversy, neither school is accused of wrongdoing. Rolling Stone magazine has apologized for shocking failures in reporting a sensational rape story where a woman named Jackie alleged that she was gang raped at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, but the Washington Post reported on discrepancies in the account, including the fact that no party was held at the fraternity on the day in question. In the meantime, Lena Dunham’s story of being raped in college has been challenged as containing discrepancies and the man who has faced the most accusations is now considering a libel lawsuit against the author and director.
Last November, questions were raised over a decision of prosecutors to drop all charges against 13th Court Justice of Appeals Nora Longoria for alleged drunk driving. There were concerns of special treatment but prosecutors insisted that they simply lacked sufficient evidence. Now it appears that there was a dash cam video that clearly shows Longoria unable to complete sobriety tests. It would seems a fairly easy case for prosecution.
Brandon Ancell, 19, and Brandon Chait, 18, probably thought that the Grinch made it look so easy in Whoville. You just wait for Christmas gifts to arrive at houses and steal them. The problem arises when a neighbor plays the role of Cindy Lou Who with a camera.
Continue reading “Trouble In Whoville: Two Men Caught Stealing Holiday Presents”
We previously discussed the best and worst of mugshots. There is a curious trend developing after the publication of mugshots on the Internet: some are finding that their mugshots have made them overnight sensations. Alysa Suguro Bathrick, 18, is the latest of these mugshot mavens. Her mugshot has gone viral following her arrest on drug charges.
Continue reading “Mugshot Maven: Another Booking Shot Goes Viral”
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
The Banksters are at it again. You may recall an article that I wrote in March of 2013 which detailed a plan agreed to by the Bank of England and the FDIC which would allow banks to grab depositors funds in order to avoid a bank failure. The prime example given in that article was a similar plan that was put into action in Cyprus. Similar plans were on the books elsewhere, but the Cyprus grab had actually been activated.
Now it seems that the joint FDIC-Bank of England agreement from December of 2012 was not enough to make the Banksters whole in the event that their derivative gambling went south. The idea has gone global and it puts all of our deposits, and even our pension investments at risk! Continue reading “Bail-Ins and Empty Pockets”
I was on BBC yesterday talking about the Stolen Valor Act and the video below that has gone viral after a man was confronted in a mall on Black Friday by a veteran who called him out as a fake. (Warning: the video contains bad language). The man, identified as Sean Yetman, 30, walked by a real veteran from the famed 101st Airborne Division who was not buying the uniform or claim that Yetman is an Army Ranger. He spotted problems right away, starting with the multiple Combat Infantry badges.
Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson indicated this week that they are “pursuing” an investigation into whether comments made by Michael Brown’s stepfather Louis Head (shown here in the white cap) should be charged for his inciting a riot for his response to the news that there would be no indictment of Officer Darren White. While I certainly do not condone the language, I have long been a critic of such “violent speech” prosecutions and I believe that such charges would violate his free speech rights and ignore the mitigating factor of a family member in a highly emotional position that night. Warning: profane words are contained in the story below and the videotape.
Continue reading “Should Michael Brown’s Stepfather Be Criminally Charged For Inciting A Riot?”
We have seen a trend in criminal charges where police are defining virtually any object as a weapon to elevate the potential penalties in a given case. The charges in Des Moines against Marvin Tramaine Hill II, 21, appear to be such a case. He is charged with attacking his pregnant wife with a weapon. The weapon? A McChicken sandwich from McDonald’s.
Since we discussed the decline in American education this morning, it is only appropriate to discuss a brain drain of a different kind in Texas. The University of Texas at Austin has reported that 100 brains have gone missing from its collection.
Continue reading “Brain Drain: University Of Texas Reports Possible Theft Of 100 Brains”
If you guessed a woman driving, you are ready to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Loujain Hathloul has continued to defy the Saudi ban on female drivers. She was stopped at the border with the United Arab Emirates when she tried to drive back into the country. Our erstwhile ally is the only country to prevent women from driving in the name of Islam — making such medieval neighbors in the region like Iran look positively advanced in comparison.
The debate in the United States continues over whether Edward Snowden is a whistleblower or a traitor. I previously wrote a column on that question. There appears to be less debate in Sweden where Snowden received standing ovations in the Swedish parliament after being given the Right Livelihood award for his disclosure of sweeping surveillance programs of the United States. The award honors Snowden “for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights”. This week, the new movie on Snowden also captured two more awards and critical acclaim.
It took a Brooklyn jury just an hour to convict Christian Ferdinand, 22, for the murder of this girlfriend Shaniesha Forbes, 14. The jury’s disdain for Ferdinand might have been cemented by the comment that he made to police after allegedly confessing to the killing of his girlfriend, burning her body, and stuffing it into a suitcase: “Do you think I can get some kind of community service?”
Continue reading ““Do You Think I Can Get Some Kind of Community Service?”: New York Man Sentenced For Killing 14-Year-Old Girlfriend Because She Might Be Pregnant”
You may recall the case seven years ago of the horrific rape, murder, and arson case out of Connecticut involving Steven Hayes. He and a friend raped and murdered a mother and two daughters in a savage home invasion. He is now on death row but Hayes is not happy with his meals. He is an Orthodox Jew and insisted that his kosher meals were not being prepared with sufficient attention to religious rules and thereby forcing him to “choose between following God and starving or choosing sin to survive.” A court has rejected the motion for preliminary injunctive relief.
Continue reading “Notorious Killer Denied Injunction Over Kosher Food On Death Row”