Category: Criminal law

Criminal law, International, Religion, Society

Australian Court Convicts Four Men For Sharia Flogging Of Fellow Muslim

260px-PelourinhoIn Australia, there is an interesting case involving Sharia. Increasingly, Muslims in Western nations are turning to Sharia justice as opposed to conventional courts to address family and personal problems. In the case of Muslim convert Christian Martinez, he sought punishment and forgiveness from his Muslim religious mentor, Wassam Faayad, for drinking and taking drugs. Faayad and his associates proceeded to give him some old-fashioned Sharia justice with an electrical cord. Then Martinez changed his mind but the beating continued. Now four Muslim men are convicted of assault in a Sharia version of “no, means no.”

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering

Georgia Public Defender Charged With Keeping Found Diamond Ring

12017533Georgia Public Defender, Alexia Dawn Davis, 31, has found herself facing a relatively rare charge for failing to take steps to return a diamond ring that she found in a parking lot. Davis is charged with theft of lost or mislaid property after she kept the ring for two weeks before taking it to the police in Augusta.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Indiana Couple Charged With Felony For Sneaking Into Zombie Movie

harbinmugsPolice and prosecutors in Portage, Indiana appear to have a rather draconian version of a criminal code where every minor offense begins with a felony and goes up from there. We previously saw how a Walmart cleaning lady was charged with a felony for eating Oreo cookies at a story. Now, the Portage police and prosecutors are seeking a felony conviction against this couple for sneaking into a zombie movie and not paying the $6.75 ticket price.

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Criminal law, Environment, International, Politics, Society

Chinese Farmer Who Asked Officials To Swim In Polluted River Is Beaten By Baton-Wielding Thugs

170px-AngleseyCopperStream220px-Factory_in_ChinaWe previously discussed how a local businessman shamed the Chinese government by offering to pay the top environmental official 200,000 yuan (around £20,000) to swim in the disgusting river near Rui’an City. The same dare was made by two Chinese environmentalists, including Chen Yuqian, a 60-year-old resident of Pailian village in Zhejiang province. It was a modest suggestion given the rampant environmental hazards and choking pollution in the country, including the dozens of cancer villages (which only this week were acknowledged by the government). However, he received his answer this week. Forty men came to his house and beat him for embarrassing the government — a standard response for Chinese environmentalists and villagers who succeeded in drawing attention to the dire plight of Chinese citizens.

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Academia, Criminal law, Society, Torts

Oklahoma State University Did Not Report Alleged Sexual Assaults Out Of Fear They Might Be Accused Of Violating The Student’s Privacy Protections

w300-c_6fff967459ab6f66ce07d34ed1b2f8c2There is a disturbing story out of Oklahoma State University where university officials failed to report sexual assault allegations to police out of a bizarre fear that they would be violating federal guidelines over the confidentiality of student grades. Former Oklahoma State student Nathan Cochran, 22, was accused of the assaults but university lawyers and staff believed that reporting the allegations would require disclosure of educational records in violation of the Federal Education Rights Privacy Act.

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Criminal law, Lawyering, Society

Minnesota Lawyer Suspended And Criminally Charged In Elaborate Alleged Swindle Involving Dead Client

Mugshot Processed -Minnesota lawyer Linda Ann Brost, 61, is under arrest this week after being suspended from practice and charged with theft by swindle, two counts of identity theft, and aggravated forgery after allegedly posing online and in letter as a deceased client to bilk his estate. A friend and beneficiary of the deceased raised the first alarm over Brost’s conduct.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Politics, Society, Torts

Sexist or Just Stupid? Biden’s Shotgun Advice Triggers Criticism

150px-shotgunaction225px-joe_biden_official_photo_portrait_2-croppedVice President Joe Biden latest controversial statement has produced some interesting criticism. Biden was asked recently if the ban on certain guns would put people at risk. He responded by encouraging people to buy shotguns and fire them out the window. It was pretty dim-witted advice since that would be illegal, but is it sexist as well as stupid?

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Politics, Religion

New Report Details Global Crackdown On Atheists and Secularists

200px-flag_of_the_united_nationssvgThe United Nations this week heard of rising abuse against atheists, agnostics, and secularists around the world. A report on this abuse, including executions, was given to a panel including Pakistan, Mauritania and Maldives which impose the death penalty on blasphemers. Turkey used the opportunity to call for the protection of “people of faith.”

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Criminal law, Society

Potty Police: Tennessee Sheriff Runs Plates Of Car For Restaurant To Charge For Use Of Bathroom

398099_402900449794167_1324443176_nIn Erin, Tennessee, The Flood Zone on Highway 149 is serious about its bathrooms. When Patricia Barnes used the bathroom and then left without buying anything, the owner ran outside and wrote down the license plate of her car. Later, she received a $5 charge for the use of the bathroom. Putting aside that that is a pretty high cost for the use of a bathroom, Barnes wondered how the restaurant could have tracked down her address. The answer appears to be Houston County Sheriff Darrell Allison, who ran the plate for the restaurant.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Criminal law

Montgomery Police Arrest a Citizen For Filming Them In Public

We appear to have another citizen arrested for exercising his constitutional rights to videotape police in public.  Jared Parr, the founder of a YouTube channel called Rockville Cop Watch, has posted his encounter with Montgomery County Police officers at a routine traffic stop.  The officers are shown demanding that he turn off his camera and what proceeds is yet another tirade from an officer who seems entirely clueless about the first amendment and basic constitutional rights. For a prior column on this issue, click here.

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Criminal law, Society, Torts

Oregon Hunter Acquitted In Killing Of Marine Reservist Who He Misstook For Bear

220px-Canadian_Rockies_-_the_bear_at_Lake_Louise180px-Edit_4x_rifle_scopeWe have another ruling in a hunting accident case. I have previously written columns and blogs about the different treatment generally afforded to killings committed by hunters. In Salem, Oregon, Eugene Collier, 68, was acquitted of manslaughter in the killing of Marine reservist Christopher Ochoa, 20, after mistaking him for a bear. We previously discussed the case.

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Criminal law, Justice, Politics

Just Fine: Don’t Bank on the Justice Department to Prosecute Big Banks

DeptofJusticeSubmitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

Last December, I wrote a post titled You Call This Justice? DOJ Criticized for Its Settlement with “Too Big to Jail” Bank HSBC. It appears that the US Justice Department isn’t too keen on bringing criminal charges against ANY wealthy bankers—not just those who work for HSBC, a huge international bank that has knowingly laundered money for drug cartels and murderers. The unethical shenanigans of the banksters of Wall Street that led to the near collapse of the US economy and to a recession don’t seem to merit jail time for the perpetrators—just a slap on the wrist and a fine.  No individual fines are paid though. The mega banks pay the fines and the banksters continue to go about their business…and continue to earn hefty salaries and bonuses.

At “Wall Street Reform: Oversight of Financial Stability and Consumer and Investor Protections,” the first Banking Committee hearing attended by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, MA), Warren asked bank regulators how tough they really are on the biggest financial institutions on Wall Street and about the last few times they actually took any banks all the way to a trial.

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Criminal law, Society

The “Numbers Game”: Utah’s Trooper Of The Year Fired After Being Accused Of False DUI Arrests

abc_gma_schriffren_130104_wgState trooper Lisa Steed is the first woman to be selected as Trooper of the Year in Utah for her record of hundreds of DUI arrests. She was celebrated as having a type of sixth sense for drunk drivers that allowed her to rake up an unprecedented number of hundreds of such arrests in a year. She is now a former trooper after her arrests were found to be invalid. What is striking is how prosecutors long suspected that Steed was unreliable as a witness but she was allowed to continue to abuse citizens. Ironically, in an interview during her illustrious career, Steed referred to her work as a “numbers game,” where she assumed that one in every 10 drivers stopped for a violation is driving impaired.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

Pakistan’s U.S. Ambassador Charged With Blasphemy

HE_AmbSherryRehmanPakistan has been working with the Obama Administration in an effort to create an international blasphemy standard. Now one of its diplomats in Washington is accused of blasphemy herself. She has been accused of blasphemy by a businessman, an offense that carries the death penalty in Pakistan.

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Criminal law, International, Religion

Dammam If You Do, Dammam If You Don’t: Saudi Arabia Cracks Down On Christians Praying In Private House

200px-Coat_of_arms_of_Saudi_Arabia.svgMutawa units, Saudi Arabia’s religious police, have been busy this month arresting Christians who practice their faith in the Kingdom. While Saudi Arabia has led the fight to create an international blasphemy crime and objected to every minor slight to Islam, it is one of the most repressive and intolerant regimes for religious freedom in the world. It will not allow the building of a single church in the Kingdom and now is cracking down on those who pray to a Christian God. The latest arrests occurred among foreign workers at a private residence in Dammam.
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