Three police officers in Springdale, Utah have been accused of taking roughly $12,000 from foreigners caught in a speed trap set up near the Zion National Park. While city officials are not apparently upset with the speed trap used to generate funds for the city, they are ticked that they never saw the money.
Continue reading “Utah Officer Accused of Shaking Down Foreigners In Speed trap”
It was bad enough that Junior Yazzie, 54, was arrested for his seventh DWI this week. However, his latest victim could not be more worse — Aztec Magistrate Judge Carla Vescovi-Dial. Judge Vescovi-Dial is still recovering from the accident where she was a passenger. She is one of six magistrate judges in San Juan County and handles primarily . . . you guessed it . . . drunk driving cases.
Continue reading “New Mexico Man Arrested For Seventh DWI . . . After Hitting Local Judge”
These four men have been arrested in a bizarre series of attacks on people where they drove up in a white stretch limousine and jumped out to assault pedestrians. Relatives insist that they were just shooting a video for a song called “Take a Sip” and got made when people spontaneously shouted racial epithets. The attacks occurred near my childhood home in Chicago in the Wrigleyville area.
This dangerous looking Bonnie and Clyde couple has finally been nabbed by the police in New York City. Caroline Stern, a dentist, and George Hess, a movie prop master, were returning from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s Swing when they decided to cut loose at the Columbus Circle station. They danced. That’s right. Right in front of drug dealers, purse snatchers, and assorted felons, they danced. Thankfully, they were promptly arrested and the New York subway system was able to return to its joyless natural state.
We have followed the plight of women in Afghanistan as both the Taliban and the government roll back on advances in women’s rights after the U.S. invasion. Now another disturbing video has surfaced where dozens of men cheer as a man pumps round afer round into a woman accused of adultery. As nine shots are fired into her, the men cheer “God is Great!” in ecstatic celebration, as shown in the video accompanying the article below. Notably, this killing took place not in some far off province but the village of Qimchok to the north of Kabul.
By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
One of the most enduring questions of the child rape scandal at Penn State is what role did head football coach Joe Paterno play in the decision to grant his ex-right-hand man, Jerry Sandusky, carte blanche to prey on children. In a statement immediately after the scandal broke last November, Joe Paterno claimed that he reported what little he knew, did what he could, and that he wasn’t fully aware of the gruesome particulars:
Continue reading “Down In The Valley III: Justice Is Mine (Updated)”
When you are accused of getting drunk and killing your dog, this is not the mug shot you want to take at the Galveston police station. Bill Cody Omer, 23, pulled up intoxicated in front of Amanda Harding’s house with a dead pit bull in car. She called police who arrested Omer. Omer is reportedly a college student.
Continue reading “The Merry Mug Shot: Houston College Student Arrested In Death Of Pit Bull”
South Carolina Judge Michael Nettles has imposed a novel sentence on Cassandra Tolley, 28, for DUI. Tolley has been ordered to read and write a summary of the Old Testament book of Job. I have been an outspoken critic of such novel punishments for years (here and here). The order to read and summarize a religious book is not simply an affront to our legal system but a danger to the separation of church and state.
Continue reading “South Carolina Judge Sentences Drunk Driver To Read Book Of Job”
Bahawalpur Pakistan was the scene of a horrific crime after thousands of Muslims were told by religious leaders to raid a police station and punish a man accused of ripping pages out of a Koran. The mentally ill man was accused of blasphemy, but never saw a courtroom. The mob pulled him from the police station, beat him to death and then set his body on fire.
First alcohol-free beer and now “highless” marijuana. Israeli researchers have developed a medicinal marijuana that can ease the symptoms of some ailments without producing the euphoric high of pot. For many this may seem like tasteless cake or non-alochoiic vodka, but the discovery could lead to some interesting legal and political issues.
Continue reading “Ultimate Buzz Kill: Israelis Develop “Highless” Marijuana”
A colleague sent me the link to the new ACLU App designed to allow citizens to more easily record police on their cellphones and to make it more difficult for police to delete the recording. It is a bold action in light of the trend of police arresting citizens who videotape them in public and efforts like prosecutors like Anita Alvarez in Cook County to put citizens in jail for such recording.
Continue reading “New Jersey ACLU Releases New App To Record Police”
The video below is now the basis for an investigation into a raid by Long Beach California officers of the THC marijuana dispensary. The officer accused the dispensary of operating without a permit. However, one officer first steps on an employee and then other officers target the security video system and destroy the cameras before tearing the place apart.
In Arkansas, Flora Burkhart, 58, has a curious defense to hit and run. She was cited by police at her home after leaving the scene of an accident. When confronted about the flight, Burkhart explained that she did not think the damage was significant and could not stop because she had ice cream in the car that would melt.
JetBlue is able to say categorically today that its former pilot Captain Clayton F. Obson was not a criminal assaulting passengers as widely suggested. He was just insane. Obson, 49, was found not guilty by reason of insanity due to a “severe mental disease or defect.” Osbon was earlier deemed mentally competent to stand trial.
Continue reading “JetBlue: Rest Assured Your Pilot Was Not Criminally Violent . . . Just Insane”
Michael Marin was the very image of a powerhouse lawyer: a Yale Law School graduate who went on to find success as a Wall Street trader who climbed Mount Everest, collected valuable art works and supported charities. The bon vivant seemed to be living the life of legend until he was charged with burning down his own Biltmore Estates mansion in Arizona. Shortly after being convicted of arson in court, Marin was seen putting something in his mouth. He promptly collapsed and died.
Continue reading “Lawyer Poisons Himself In Court After Being Found Guilty Of Arson”