Category: Criminal law

Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Lawyering, Testimony

Speak No Evil

Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Here’s a great legal war-story from U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson (via lawhaha.com) that needs no commentary:

“A very-veteran criminal defendant was about to be tried in federal court in Wyoming on bank fraud charges. The allegation was that, while in the county lockup on an unrelated stolen-vehicle charge, he had used the jail phone to call a local bank and, posing as a prominent wealthy individual, persuaded the bank to deliver a cashier’s check for $10,000 to the jail for the ostensible purpose of bonding out the man’s “nephew” (the nephew’s name, of course, being the defendant’s own).
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Criminal law, Society

New Mexico Man Arrested For Moving From a Dumpster To Homeless Shelter Without Prior Notice To Police

In Albuquerque, Charles Mader has been arrested for moving from his domicile without notifying police under sex offender registration rules. That is not particularly newsworthy until you consider that his previous address was an industrial dumpster. That’s right, police arrested Mader for moving out of the dumpster and into a homeless shelter.
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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

Felony Franks Sues City Over Misdemeanor Message

One would hardly relish the position of Jim Andrews, owner of Felony Franks on the Near West Side of Chicago. Andrews is suing after city officials refused to allow him to hang his sign as offensive. He has named not just the city by 2nd Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti (2nd) for what he claims is a denial of his free speech. He may have a point.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Rape Victim Told To Cheer Alleged Rapist: Supreme Court Turns Down Appeal of Texas Cheerleader

The Supreme Court has turned down review for a Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the name of a basketball player that she said raped her four months earlier. Officials at Silsbee High School threw her off the team for not cheering for Rakheem Bolton, a star on the Silsbee High School football team.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Politics

A Victory For Torture? Obama Officials Attempt To Justify Torture in Claiming False Credit For Bin Laden Killing

Current members of the Obama Administration (as well as former Bush officials) are claiming that all that torture under President Bush finally paid off in supplying the leads to eventually finding Osama bin Laden’s hideout. What is striking is not only the lack of any support for the claims, but the immediate effort of Obama officials to justify torture. No doubt these are the same officials supporting Obama’s decision to bar prosecution of individuals who carried out the torture — and later barring the investigation of those who ordered the torture.
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Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Society

Video: Imam in Jerusalem Calls For Revenge For Bin Laden’s Death

This video has surfaced that purportedly shows the “imam from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem” vowing to revenge the death of Osama bin Laden and kill “the western dogs” responsible for his death. However, while this tape is getting a lot of hits, there is still no identification of the alleged imam from one of Islam’s most sacred mosques.
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Animals, Bizarre, Criminal law

Getting Your Goat: West Virginia Man Arrested After Being Found With Dead Goat After Two-Day Binge on Bath Salts

Ok, it does not get much stranger than this. CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia man found wearing women’s underwear and standing over a goat’s carcass told police he was high on bath salts. In West Virginia, Mark L. Thompson, 19, was arrested after witnesses stated that they came into his home and found him wearing a bra and female underwear and covered in blood. At this feet was the dead pygmy goat of his neighbor. Thompson told an officer named Cpl. Snuffer that he was high on “bath salts” and “wasn’t in his right mind.”

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering

Florida Lawyer Charged With Break In After Cellphone Is Found Charging In Victim’s Home

Lawyer William Webb Greenfelder has been charged with breaking into a vacant mobile home and stealing electricity. The evidence is rather strong. First there was Greenfelder’s cellphone plugged into an outlet at the home and then there was orange extension chord that ran from the home to just short of Greenfelder’s mobile home.
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Bizarre, Criminal law

Sign of Our Times: Deaf Man Stabbed After Alleged Gang Members Mistake Sign Language For Gang Signs

This charming couple is Barbara Lee, 45, and Marco Ibanez, 19. They are accused of killing Alfred Stewart, 31, (shown below) and attacking his friends after Lee mistook their sign language for gang signs. Stewart and his friends are deaf and now he is dead.
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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Supreme Court

Can Smartphones Be Searched Incident to Arrest?

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

In the 1969 case Chimel v. California, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, held that an “arresting officer may search the arrestee’s person to discover and remove weapons and to seize evidence to prevent its concealment or destruction.” The search also included “the area “within the immediate control” of the person arrested, meaning the area from which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.” This case created the Chimel rule allowing warrantless searches incident to a lawful arrest.

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