There is a surprising plea deal in Georgia this week where Philip Sailors, 69, (left) was accused of responding to Rodrigo Diaz (right) pulling into his driveway by mistake by shooting him in the head and killing him. Sailors has now been allowed to plead out on a single misdemeanor for involuntary manslaughter with no jail time. He was facing a murder charge. Under the plea bargain, Sailors will serve 12-months’ probation and pay a $500 fine. What is equally striking is that Sailors declined to say a word of apology to the family of Diaz when he appeared in court to accept the plea bargain of lifetime. We previously discussed this case.
Continue reading “Georgia Man Shoots and Kills Driver Who Mistakenly Pulled Into His Driveway . . . Allowed To Plead To A Single Misdemeanor With No Jail Time and A $500 Fine”
Category: Criminal law
Authorities in Thailand have asked for the help of the U.S. and Interpol to arrest two Americans who are accused of trying to mail body parts of infants and three adults to the United States. The two men accused of this disgusting crime may not come as much of a surprise to some people already familiar with their names: Ryan Edward McPherson, 31 (aka “Ryen McPherson”) and Daniel Tanner, 33. The two are producers of the infamous “Bumfights” video series where they paid homeless men small amounts of money to fight each other and have “Bumfights” tattooed on their foreheads. They reportedly made millions of the films. In this case, they are accused of buying such items as an infant’s head with its scalp sliced off as a fun gift to take home. The humor may be lost on McPherson and Tanner if they find themselves entertaining in a Thai prison. It expect they are two exports that most officials would gladly like to send to Thailand for good.
There continues to be a national debate over how to handle “deadbeat dads” with some questioning whether jail time is useful as a punishment for non-payment since it often makes it harder for the fathers to hold jobs. Others say that deadbeat dads are often do not take civil penalties seriously and that only jail will motivate compliance to shoulder their responsibilities. There may be no greater case study to support criminal sanctions than Terry Turnage, who has fathered 26 children by 15-20 different women, though the precise number seems difficult to confirm. He has reportedly failed to pay virtually any support to any of the women while driving expensive cars and throwing lavish parties.
There are serious questions raised this week as to whether a star football player from Florida State was given preferential treatment not only by university police but Tallahasee police after a hit-and-run where two cars were totaled. At the heart of the controversy, is starting cornerback P. J. Williams who was allegedly driving the car that slammed into an oncoming vehicle. A second starting cornerback, Ronald Darby, also reportedly fled the scene at 2:30 am. However, neither was charged and the incident was not written up by the university police — as if it never happened. Just a couple of minor tickets for the “Noles.” It is a new meaning to nolo contendere. It usually means a defendant not contending a charge. In this case, Nole contendere is used by police to say “I do not wish to contend” a criminal charge against a FSU player. [For full disclosure, my wife is an FSU graduate and a “Nole”].
Of all the victims of the Islamic State, none are more horrific than the girls captured by the jihadists and treated as sex slaves or forced to “marry” fighters. That is the fate of girls from the minority Yazidi towns and we have first-hand accounts from girls who recently escaped from IS forces. What is most striking is that clerics have justified their rape and slavery as consistent with the Koran and expressly justified under the extremist views of Islam and Sharia law. The girls are being declared “chums” or war spoils and their rape is being defended as allowing pure Islamic fighters from committing adultery. Kidnapping and raping thousands of girls is considered a better alternative than the scourge of adultery to these clerics.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
In the past, I have written about the Big Banks continued unlawful actions that only result in “slap on the wrist fines” that in many cases are passed on to the shareholders and/or used as a tax deduction. It seems that Wall Street and the Banksters have not learned a thing. Or have they?
The latest wrinkle in Banksters taking advantage of American citizens is noted in a Crooks and Liars report which detailed an investigation into several Big Banks and their alleged refusal to honor the orders of Bankruptcy judges across the country. Of course, the “usual suspects” have been named in the latest investigations. Continue reading “Banks Ignore the Bankruptcy Laws”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
O
n November 14th a grand jury in the Western District of Oklahoma issued a true bill indicting former Oklahoma City Police Officer Doug Williams for Obstruction of Justice, Witness Tampering, and Wire Fraud for allegedly being “…hired and paid to train customers how to conceal misconduct in other disqualifying information during Federal employment suitability assessments, Federal security background investigations, internal Federal agency investigations, and other proceedings.”
Williams proffers himself as a crusader having the hopes of eliminating polygraph examinations, informally known as lie detector tests, from government use in that fifty percent of truthful answers are deemed by polygraph operators to be lies. He maintains the website polygraph.com. Fees include one thousand dollars for his training locally and up to five thousand dollars for sessions in which air travel is requested of him.
In essence, Williams attests to the fact that innocent individuals are falsely accused of lying and that his service helps his customers bring out truthful answers. The website does not promise to assist customers to be successful in covering untruthful information.
We have another man charged this week after posting pictures on Facebook. In the case of Andre Robinson, 22, his defense has outraged people as much as his crime. After being shown luring a stray cat over and then viciously kicking it, Robinson essentially insists that no animals were harmed in the making of his film. The prosecutors say that the cat was kicked some 20 feet. His team challenged the prosecutors to prove that the cat was actually injured.
Adrian Acevedo-Hernandez, 36, Jose Luis Montufar-Canales, 31, Jose Manuel Ortega-Torres, 30, and J. Nemias Reyes Marin, 31, are in need of some “friends” after their Facebook postings led to their arrest. The men were shown on pictures with an assortment of dead animals. One picture from Hiko, Nevada below shows Ortega-Torres carrying off a mule deer in Nevada but game officials were struck by the background of the picture that was clearly not in the hunting season. That prompted a 16-month state and federal probe that finally led to the arrest of the men who are described as carrying out “a systematic killing, illegal killing, of wildlife.” Authorities believe that Acevedo-Hernandez, Montufar-Canales and Marin are illegal immigrants.
Continue reading “Bagged: Four Men Arrested After Posting Pictures Of Poached Deer On Facebook”
Television host Nancy Grace is again being sued this week over the latest example of her low-grade, gotcha programming. Grace is being sued by a man who she labeled the “selfie stalker” for allegedly taking a picture with a crime victim’s cellphone. The problem is that Ben Seibert is not a stalker and did not take such a picture with the phone. He was cleared of the allegations but that did not stop Grace from continuing to shred his reputation on-air. It is always shocking to see Grace appear not just on CNNHD but CNN generally. If, as the tagline reads, “this is CNN” it has truly experienced a fall from Grace.
Continue reading “This Is CNN? Nancy Grace Sued By Man She Labeled The “Selfie Stalker””
Indian officials are investigating a shocking case where 10 women have died and dozens of others hospitalized after participating in a state-run mass sterilization. The over 80 women underwent sterilizations by a single doctor in a single day in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Saturday. The most remarkable statement came below from the chief medial officer who promised an investigation.
Sgt. Shawn Glans a New York sheriff’s deputy has been suspended after a video was posted that showed him verbally abusing, and apparently slapping a young man after the man refused to let Glans search his vehicle. The car had a rifle in the backseat, which is not unlawful and, when the man refuses, Glans is heard threatening that he could “rip your … head off.”
A New York jury has convicted Adam Tang, aka “AfroDuck,” who posted the video below from “AfroDuck Productions” showing him circling Manhattan at speeds up to 100 mph. Tang, 31, however, has now added being a fugitive to being a reckless idiot — he has fled to Canada. Remarkably, this is only a misdemeanor with a potential sentence of up to a year, but prosecutors insist, understandably, that he needs to spend time in jail. Tang turned down a two-month jail sentence in a plea offer saying that he is married to an American woman and wanted to avoid any criminal record in case it would cause immigration complications. Of course, filming himself speeding at 100 mph through Manhattan did not seem to be a “complication” for his immigration status. Nor did his later arrest history.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
Did you know that somewhere in America, it is illegal to feed the homeless in public? It can’t be true can it? It is true in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after the recent passage of an ordinance by the city council. The real scary part of that news is that Fort Lauderdale is not alone in taking this anti-compassionate stance!
“Over 30 cities across the nation have outlawed or are considering criminalizing the provision of food to homeless people. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, over 20 cities have devised laws against giving food to homeless people since January 2013.” Nation of Change
While I can understand this stance if these cities are adding health guidelines to make such feeding attempts safer, I am shocked that over 30 cities have outlawed it or are considering outlawing the practice of giving food to the hungry and homeless. Are public picnics next on the hit list? Continue reading “Why is it Illegal to Feed the Homeless?”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The Washington Supreme Court ruled it is a violation of Due Process to require a rape defendant to prove lack of consent in rape trials, shifting the burden to the state. The opinion reverses decades old practices of the courts and by extensions investigators of such crimes to include elements showing lack of consent that were previously assumed based on the statements and evidence of alleged victims.