Category: Criminal law

What Seems To Be The Problem, Officer?

1407331554000-pot-watermark1Justin Goodloe (right), 20, and Allen Thomas Barnes (left), 19, are probably not going to be top candidates for the next year’s draft picks for the Sinaloa Cartel. Barnes was driving a car in the early morning of July 24th when it was pulled over the police near a burglary scene — purportedly because of the lack of headlights. As police approached the vehicle, they saw a rather curious sight: a marijuana plant sticking out of the window of the vehicle.

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Park Officials Look For Man Shown Kicking Squirrel Off Grand Canyon As Joke

1407377064000-1407269546001-Squirrel-kicking-2-1-Authorities are looking into a viral Internet video that shows a man kicking a squirrel off what appears to be the edge of the Grand Canyon. The 15-second video posted on YouTube purports to show a man putting food in a line to the edge of the Grand Canyon for a waiting squirrel. Once the squirrel reached the edge, he then kicks it off the edge as what he thinks is a hilarious joke.

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Ohio Judge Arrested After Allegedly Punching, Choking, and Biting Wife In Moving Car In Front Of Their Children

628x471Ohio Common Pleas Court Judge Lance Mason, 46, has been arrested after he allegedly punched, choked and bit his wife. Mason is now charged with felonious assault. His wife of eight years was hospitalized with facial injuries including a fractured orbital bone after the incident.

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New York Woman Allegedly Crashes Into Firehouse After Stolen Snake Wraps Around Her Neck

05-sarah-espinosa-mugshot.w215.h215.2x Sarah Espinosa, 22, of Albany, New York allegedly combined three activities that made for a uniquely bad combination: drinking, driving, . . . and snake theft. Espinosa culminated this poor judgment by succeeding in crashing into a firehouse after the snake reportedly wrapped itself around her neck in Long Island.

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Arizona Was Compelled To Give Prisoner 15 Times The Standard Dosage of Drugs In Botched Wood Execution

sub-execute-master180New details are emerging on the botched execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood in Arizona that we discussed earlier. If you recall the horrific scene, Wood took roughly two hours to die. Now it appears that the dosage for the new drugs were way off — requiring the prison to increase the dosage to 25 times what was thought to be necessary.

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Dustin Johnson Suspended From The PGA

Dustin_Johnson_2008_US_Open_croppedI am not a golfer and it is one of the sports that I least enjoy watching. However, it does occasionally supply an interesting legal controversy. Pro golfer Dustin Johnson this week is taking a leave of absence from the PGA tour (the Washington Post is calling it a suspension). The reason is intriguing. He failed three drug tests and allegedly has been sleeping with the wives of other players. The drug tests however were reportedly for marijuana and cocaine. Since those are not performance enhancing drugs, I do not understand why the PGA even tests for them or why Johnson being a cad is an issue for the PGA.

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UCSB Professor Miller-Young Pleads No Contest To Battery and Other Charges As Supporters Denounce Her Victims As “Terrorists”

milleryoungWe recently discussed the controversy surrounding a confrontation between Thrin Short, 16, and her sister Joan, 21, and Feminist Studies Associate Professor Mireille Miller-Young. Miller-Young was then charged with criminal conduct including Theft of Person; Battery; and Vandalism. While initially pleading not guilty, Miller-Young has now entered a no contest plea to charges to the three misdemeanors. Despite the videotape of the incident and violation of both criminal law and presumably university regulations, Miller-Young remains employed at the university.

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“We Tortured Some Folks”: Obama Admits United States Committed Acts Violating Federal and International Law

President_Barack_Obamatorture -abu ghraibFollowing the admission that the CIA hacked Senate computers and lied to Congress, President Obama today affirmed that it did indeed torture people. This admission (while belated) is an important recognition by the United States of what is obvious from a legal standpoint. However, that also means that CIA officials violated both federal and international law. The question is why Obama began his first term by promising CIA employees that they would not be tried for what he now describes as “tortur[ing] some folks.”

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Final Flight Leg: British Woman Arrested After Beating People on Flight With Prosthetic Limb

DRUNKWOMAN_2993122cA 48-year-old woman caused a Thomson Airlines flight to diverted to Gatwick airport after she began to yell profanities, throw food, and beat people with her prosthetic leg. The airline response below is quintessential British.

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“Just for the Hell of It”: Illinois Man Arrested For Inserting Needles In Meats

220px-Needles_(for_sewing)Ronald Avers, 68, does not exactly cut the image of a major felon in his motorized scooter with the portable oxygen tank at the Shop ‘n Save store in Belleville, Illinois. However, when sewing needles (not the ones shown) were found in packaged meat, security noticed that Avers was on camera handling meats that he did not buy. At least two people were injured when eating the meat and Avers later said that he did it “just for the hell of it.” He was appropriated arrested by Special Agent Cook.

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Deaf Family Hits Woman Trying To Escape Zombie Attack of the Car in San Diego

Screen Shot 2014-08-01 at 7.52.07 AMThere is a case out of San Diego that raises some of the same issues as the infamous biker attack on a family in a van in New York city last year. In this case it was zombies. Various people dressed up outside Comic Con for a “Zombie Walk” where they walked like brain-dead undead down the street. To prove the first criteria, various members attacked a car of a family with children. The entire family was deaf. Despite their pleas, these people pounded on the car and one jumped on the hood and broke the windshield. The family then tried to pull away and struck a 64-year-old woman in the crowd.

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Saudi Court Hands Down Sharia Sentence To Gay Man: 3 years in Jail and 450 Lashes

300px-fomfr_whipWe have another grotesque application of Sharia law out of Saudi Arabia. A court in Medina has applied Islamic law to sentence a man to three years in jail and 450 lashes for being gay. The unnamed 24-year-old man was arrested after a sting operation by the notorious Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) where they arranged a meeting over social media.

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CIA Admits Hacking Senate Computers After Months of Denials

senate_large_seal200px-CIA.svgIn the same week as the State Department report endorsing findings that the CIA lied to Congress and brutalized suspects, the CIA is now admitting that its recent denials of hacking Senate computers was also false. Once again, however, there is not even a suggestion of discipline, let alone criminal charges, for CIA officials who lied to Congress (or allowed others to lie) and hacked into congressional computers.

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State Department Endorses Conclusions Of Senate That CIA Misled Congress and Brutalized Suspects

StateDepartmentCIAThe State Department has issued a document that endorses the findings of the Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks. The document notably avoids references to “torture” but discussed now the CIA brutalized suspects and misled Congress. Putting aside such word substitutions of “brutalizing” for “torture” and “misleading” for “lying,” there remains one glaring omission: not a single CIA official was disciplined, let alone criminally charged. One official even publicly admitted to destroying evidence to avoid its use in court in a torture prosecution. He was allowed to retire with honors and accolades. The Bush and Obama Administration steadfastly refused to prosecute such officials. Indeed, soon after coming to power, Obama went to the CIA to assure officials that they would never face prosecution.

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Muslim Mob Protests Blasphemy and Kills Seven-Year-Old Girl and Her Baby Sister in Retaliation

220px-Lewes_Bonfire,_discarded_torchFlag_of_PakistanIn Pakistan, a Muslim mob has killed a seven-year-old girl and her baby sister (as well as their grandmother) in the latest carnage to defend the faith from blasphemy. The cause of the outrage was a simple picture posted on Facebook that was deemed offensive to Islam. The mob accused members of the Ahmadi sect, who live under continual discrimination by the Pakistani government and the threat of death from Muslims over their faith.

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