Tennessee music teacher Daniel Torroll, 56, was arrested Thursday after being allegedly seen engaging in sex acts with a child-like doll near an elementary school. His statements to police and press are a good example of how half a defense is sometimes worse than no defense at all.
Category: Criminal law
Robert Vietze, 18, of South Warren Vt. caused a commotion on a JetBlue flight from Portland to New York yesterday when he urinated on a sleeping 11-year-old girl. What is interesting about this case is the charge: indecent exposure rather than assault or other more serious charge.
Continue reading “Oregon Man Arrested For Urinating On Sleeping 11-Year-Old Girl on JetBlue Flight”
Criminal charges have been formally dropped against New York news cameraman Phil Datz who was arrested at a crime scene last month. The video of the clearly abusive arrest was placed on YouTube (below) and shows an officer threatening and then arresting Datz. This is part of a continuing trend of officers arresting citizens and reporters for filming them in public — acts found to be unconstitutional but remain clearly tolerated (if not encouraged) in some jurisdictions.
Continue reading “Datz A Wrap: Suffolk Drops Charges Against Cameraman After Abusive Arrest”
Now this could make for an interesting challenge. Brian Pollard was arrested for DUI in an accident that led to the death of Peggy Williamson. He received only four days in jail after pleading guilty. When the family cried foul, District Judge Rebecca Phelps and prosecutors insisted that they had no idea someone died. They are now moving to charge him again — after he was sentenced on the crime for DUI.
Continue reading “Kentucky Man Kills Woman in DUI — and Receives Four Days In Jail”
Remember the worldwide violence over a cartoon showing Muhammad with a bomb in his turban? Well, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met recently the country’s religious leaders to ask them to kindly ask militants to stop hiding bombs in turbans and other religious garments. It is a curious appeal since one would have thought the clerics could go a little further and say that hiding bombs in terrorist acts anywhere is immoral.
Honestly, what would we do on this blog without those hilarious guys in Iran. In their latest standup routine, the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast issued a statement to the British government to show greater restraint in dealing with protesters in London and other cities. That’s right, the government that has killed, beaten, and raped protesters is publicly calling out England on its efforts to stop the rioting and looting in London.
Continue reading “Iran Calls For Investigation of England’s Treatment of Protesters and Calls For Dialogue With Rioters”
Minister Thomas Fortenberry of the Greater Harvest Community Church in Pasadena will not face trial for allegedly filming girls at his church while showering because the passage of the statute of limitations. The case is an example of how the statute can cut off prosecution even though the crime only occurred in 2007.
Illinois divorce attorney Jason W. Smiekel, 29, has been charged with trying to hire someone to kill his girlfriend’s ex-husband. Smiekel represented his girlfriend in the divorce. The undercover ATF officer claimed that Smiekel said the man had knowledge of possible criminal conduct and would soon give that evidence in a hearing.
Jessalyn Stierwalt, 21, really really did not want to make her probation appointment. Stierwalt had been drinking and came up with a plan: to have two friends stab her in the stomach. That way the probation officer would not find out she had been drinking.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?” Rodney King 5/1/92
The arguments and divisions politically here and throughout this country are rampant and destructive. Anger and hatred of others of differing opinions rises at times to fever pitch and I admit that I am part of the problem as much as anyone else is. This is a somewhat different piece in that I am going to present some national problems, as I see them and elicit your comments on them, in an attempt to discover whether there is some common ground agreement, on some things plaguing our society. While I am more interested in whether or not people agree that these are indeed problems for us all to consider and work to solve, it is certainly apropos for people to comment on what they believe the solutions to be.
This is an experiment on the viability of people agreeing on the premise that a problem exists in a given area. We cannot begin to resolve issues, unless we first agree that they are issues to be contemplated by the entire body politic. My hope is to engender real, civil discussion and perhaps at the end reach something like consensus. This is not a plea for Bi-Partisanship because to me that is a fantasy, whoever may utter it. To be “partisan” is to hold strong opinions and srong opinions do not resolve themselves into agreement. The resolution reached by “partisans” is always one of compromise, without either side changing their core beliefs, but agreeing to take part of the loaf. I am “experimenting” to see if many of the diverse viewpoints represented here can at least agree that a specific issue is indeed a problem, or if it is indeed an issue. Beyond writing this, I will not take part in the ensuing discussion, since the formulation itself indicates my views on whether these are indeed problems. I will limit my questions to legal issues, with no particular order of importance intended.
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
A sad chapter on Hurricane Katrina closed yesterday with convictions by a federal jury of five New Orleans police officers stationed on the now infamous Danziger Bridge. The five were accused of killing two unarmed civilians and wounding four others and then engaging in a brazen five year coverup. However the jury did not find that the deaths of teenager James Bissette and mentally challeneged Ronald Madison constituted murder. Rather the killings were found to be a deprivation of civil rights.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Skylar Capo, an 11-year-old aspiring veterinarian in Fredericksburg Virginia, rescued a baby woodpecker from the jaws of the family cat in her Dad’s backyard. Her mother, Alison Capo, agreed to take the baby woodpecker home to make sure it was safe and uninjured. On the way home, they stopped by Lowe’s and took the caged bird inside to keep it out of the heat of their car.
Continue reading “Girl Saves Baby Woodpecker – Mom Gets Fined $535”
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty-Guest Blogger
Since we have been all so absorbed by the ongoing political saga involving the imaginary debt ceiling crisis, I thought it would be therapeutic to discuss something totally unrelated to that nonsense. As you will recall, the CIA destroyed hundreds of hours of video tape documentation of the infamous CIA Torture Program during the last Administration. Continue reading “The CIA Destroyed Evidence..So Why Shouldn’t They Be Held in Contempt?”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Given the temptations to imbibe in New Orleans and the benefits of a father-son weekend, Billy Joe Madden of Mississippi probably thought he was doing the right thing taking his son along to serve as designated driver. Still, something looked odd to Louisiana Troopers as they saw the Hattiesburg resident passed out in the passenger seat of his pickup truck as it tooled erratically along Interstate 12 while he son “manned” the wheel and as his unsuspecting daughter slept in the back seat. Seems our responsible drinker and father of two felt it quite proper to let his eight-year old son drive the pickup to Dallas –as in Texas –even as his 4 year-old daughter slept. Troopers were not so sanguine and booked Billy Joe (you just can’t make this up) on two counts of child desertion, parent allowing a minor to drive, open container and two counts of no child restraint and no seatbelt. Both of Madden’s children were turned over to child welfare authorities and were awaiting the arrival of a family member who could take custody of them, police said. Billy Joe remains in jail in lieu of his $1,400.00 bond. Who’d bail him out for this anyway?
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Bonneau is a quiet little town in the “Low Country” of South Carolina. Boasting plenty of southern charm, it covers about 2.9 square miles and sports 354 residents. Not much going on except good red beans and rice and some pleasantly hot summer boat rides on Lake Moultrie. Pretty Mayberry-esque except it’s also the epicenter for a debate on South Carolina’s obscenity laws which prohibit motorists from displaying bumper stickers, decals, or devices depicting “sexual acts, excretory functions, or parts of the human body in an offensive way as determined by contemporary community standards.”
Continue reading “South Carolina To Try Citizen For Nutsy Display”