Mohammad Safi appears to have found the American dream. In 2006, Safi graduated from a medical school in Afghanistan. He then came to the United States and began working as a psychiatrist at a California mental hospital. By 2010, he made $822,302. As California struggles with this economic crisis and shuts down needed social programs, the state is still paying absurd annual salaries like Safi’s. His windfall is due entirely to the failure of the correctional department to meet minimal standards of care for prisoners. The state waited to be ordered to meet mental health standards before having to go into a bidding process to quickly secure such doctors. This set off an instant wage war with the mental health department, which had to bid higher for its doctors. The result? Some 16 California psychiatrists, including Safi, made more than $400,000
Category: Criminal law
We have previously discussed the often hostile treatment of victims of sexual abuse in some Orthodox Jewish communities. On Monday, one such case reached verdict with the conviction of Nechemya Weberman, a religious counselor in Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community. Weberman was convicted of 59 counts for the sustained sexual abuse of a girl who was sent to him after she began to question her faith and dress immodestly. The case highlighted the harsh treatment of those who reveal such crimes in the Orthodox community. During the trial, three men were charged with criminal contempt for snapping images of the victim on the witness stand with cellphone cameras and then posting them online. Previously, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes charged four men with trying to bribe the accuser to drop the charges. The case also raised troubling questions of special treatment given to the accused in this politically powerful community by Hynes in withholding their names from the public.
We discussed earlier how the top Justice Department attorney in Washington State said that the federal government would not yield to the state referendums legalizing marijuana use and possession. This followed a statement the day after the election that the Administration would not change their policy on targeting marijuana, including medical marijuana. However, a new Gallup poll shows an impressive 64 percent of Americans object to the enforcement in state legalizing or decriminalizing pot. Only 34 percent supported the continuation of the Obama policy.
We have been following the increased attacks by political (here and here) and religious figures (here and here) against atheists and agnostics in recent years. A new report is out from the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) detailing this trend globally.
Continue reading “Report: Atheists and Religious Critics Persecuted Around The World”
Corey Curtis, 44, is a Wisconsin man who is the subject of a novel court order. Racine County Circuit Court Judge Tim Boyle ordered Curtis to stop having children after he sired nine children and is already $100,000 in arrears for child support. Six different women had children with Curtis who said that he will now agree to stop producing children.
Continue reading “Wisconsin Court Orders Father Of Nine Children To Stop Procreating”
A twenty-eight-year-old British woman was allegedly kidnapped and gang raped by three Iranian men in Dubai. When she and her roommate went to police, they found an all-too-common hostile response from police in the Islamic state. While the police sought (and ultimately arrested two of the three Iranians), the woman was charged with “drinking without a license.”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
When United States District Judge Katherine Forrest blocked the implementation of Section 1021 of the infamous National Defense Authorization Act in May of this year, I thought that legal civilians of all stripes were saved from being at risk of imprisonment without trial or due process. However, an appeals court stayed Judge Forrest’s injunction and the appellate court has allowed the indefinite detention provision to be reinstated during the appeal time frame. Business Insider
Naomi Wolf of the Guardian explains why a group of journalists sued to block the implementation of Section 1021 in the first place. “As I reported here, last spring a group of journalists and activists including Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky and Tangerine Bolen, led by counsel Bruce Afran and others, sued President Obama to halt the implementation of Section 1021 in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would have allowed for the indefinite detention of Americans without charge or trial. The vague definition of who could be detained included individuals who were seen to provide “substantial support” to al-Qaida’s “associated forces” – wording that provided no protection for journalists interviewing, for example, detainees in Guantánamo, or activists and advocates working with prisoners on their cases.” Readersupportednews Continue reading “NDAA Double Cross”
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Don’t leave Vanessa Robinson’s home without offering her a beer. The Hempfield Township, PA, resident is not to be trifled with when it comes to her Colt .45 malt liquor. And it seems her boyfriend, James Gallone, learned the etiquette of alcohol the hard way. Gallone had reportedly bought the beer and taken it over to his girlfriend for a good old fashioned “hanging out” session. Things turned ugly when Gallone decided to leave. Pennsylvania State Trooper, Steve Limani, picks up the story there: “The person who purchased the alcohol says, ‘I’m leaving,’ goes to grab the beer that he had purchased. The female was arguing with him that, ‘you’re not taking the beer. It ended up becoming a physical altercation.”
Continue reading “Girlfriend Teaches Beau Real Meaning Of One For The Road”
George Zimmerman appears not to be content with being on the criminal docket alone. He is now a civil litigant in a lawsuit filed against NBC Universal Media for an editing error that portrayed him as a racist in coverage of the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. The very first line of the complaint starts out with an accusation of unethical sensationalism” ““NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so to set about the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain.”
Continue reading “Zimmerman Sues NBC Over Alleged Misrepresentation Of Police Tape”
There is a curious set of charges out of Montgomery County. A seventeen-year-old student at Magruder High School was charged as an adult for carrying an unloaded gun into school. However, he is also charged with possession of a firearm by a minor — thereby treating him as a minor for one charge and an adult for another.
We discussed earlier how, when trying to lure back liberal voters for his reelection, President Obama’s administration went into radio silence on its past crackdown on marijuana use, including medical marijuana. Then, the day after reelection, the Justice Department announced that it would continue its unpopular crackdown on pot distribution and possession. Now, after the legalization of marijuana use in Washington state, the Justice Department has announced that it would not yield to the citizens of the state and would continue its crackdown. The statement came from the office of the United States Attorney in Seattle, the highest ranking Justice official in the state.
There is an interesting ruling out of Mobile, Alabama where former child sex crimes prosecutor, Steve Giardini, was charged with solicitation of a minor over the computer. Special Judge Gaines McCorquodale dismissed the charge on a key missing element under the statute: an actual victim. Since Giardini was speaking with an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old girl, McCorquodale ruled that there was no victim as required under the language of the statute for child enticement. Essentially, no child, no enticement, no charge.
Ever wonder what type of low life would steal Holiday presents from people’s porches? How about from an area ravaged by a hurricane? Well, according to police in Long Island, you need to meet Albert Munoz, 21, and Freddy Benavides, Jr., 20. The two men were arrested after an off-duty New York State Trooper saw them allegedly following a UPS truck and stealing holiday packages from the porches and front doors of homes.
Below is my column this morning in USA Today on a campaign by the Obama Administration to pressure colleges and universities to reduce due process protections for students accused of sexual harassment and sexual violence. I have previously written a letter to my own university opposing some of these specific changes, though (like many schools) George Washington appears to be yielding to the pressure. I understand the concern of the Administration and the need to protect victims in this difficult process. We are all committed to maintaining a protective environment for both students and faculty. However, there are other ways to offer such protections without stripping away core due process protections in my view. My greatest concern is with the sexual violence cases because these adjudications will have a lifelong impact on the students (or faculty members) as well as consequences for collateral criminal proceedings. The column below is slightly expanded with material cut for space in the newspaper version.
We have been following a growing trend of alleged unjustified shootings of pet dogs by police officers. We can now add a case out of Chicago where a 7-month-old miniature bull terrier, called “The Colonel” by neighbors, was shot by a police officer. A lawsuit names Officer Brandon Pettigrew as the cop who twice shot The Colonel, which weighs less than 30 pounds. According to witnesses, the officer then calmly returned to writing the ticket and handed it to the distraught owner. The police returned three days later, according to media reports, and asked why the owners were speaking to the media . . . and proceeded to give them a ticket for having a dog off a leash.