Category: Criminal law

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett Issues Subpoenas To Strip Anonymity From Critics

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett has subpoenas to learn the identity of two critics on Twitter who chastised Corbett for his “Bonusgate” investigation of legislative corruption. The tweets objected to Corbett’s handling of the trials of 25 former and current state lawmakers charged with using taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes.

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Forbidden Love: Gay Couple Sentenced to 14 Years in Malawi For Holding Marriage Ceremony

Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, have been sentenced to 14 years in prison with hard labor for holding a private wedding ceremony. The Malawi court found that such a ceremony and relationship constitutes gross indecency and involves unnatural acts. Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa stated he wanted to protect the public “from people like you.”

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Census-less Crimes: Census Workers Accused of Wrongdoing

We have seen a rash of census workers accused of wrongdoing this month. In Indiana, Daniel Miller, 39, (left) is accused of raping a 21-year-old disabled woman after forcing his way into her home during a Census visit, here. In New Jersey, Frank J. Kuni was arrested after a woman recognized him as a sex offender. In St. Louis, a citizen was bitten in the stomach by a Census worker’s dog.
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Mazda Dealership Sells Mentally Disabled Woman a Car at a 60 Percent Mark Up After She Comes In For New Tires

We have another entry in the rotten people file today (in addition to the TSA worker who allegedly robbed a disabled person, here). Mazda of Canada has stripped Mazda of Orangeville of the right to sell its cars after it sold a mentally-disabled woman, Madeline Leonard, a 2010 Mazda 6 at a huge overcharge of $66,000 for a $41,000 car that was previously used as a demonstrator. Leonard came in to simply buy new tires.

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Pizza to Die For: Italian Prosecutors Allege Pizzerias in Naples Have Been Using Coffin Wood

If you thought that Neapolitan pizza on your last vacation to Italy was to die for, you were more right. Italian prosecutors allege that pizzeria owners in Naples have been using coffin wood to make their pizzas and save on the cost of combustible material.
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Supreme Court Rules Government Can Hold Citizens Indefinitely If They Are Deemed Sexually Dangerous

The U.S. Supreme Court has given the federal government sweeping new authority to hold people indefinitely — even after the completion of their sentences — if they find the individuals to be “sexually dangerous.” Notably, it is a reversal of the nation’s most conservative court of appeals — the Fourth Circuit — which ruled that Congress could not impose such an open-ended denial of liberty. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan argued for such authority, here. In the decision below written by Justice Stephen Breyer in United States v. Comstock, only two conservative justices dissented: Thomas and Scalia.
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Texas Lawyer Fires Gun At Census Worker Five Times

Texas lawyer Carolyn Barnes, 53, allegedly did not want to answer the ten questions on the census form in a big way. She is accused of firing a gun at Kathleen Gittel, a census worker, five times when she came to her door. Barnes has had a rather lengthy history of run-ins with the law and I do not mean as an advocate.
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New Zealand Court Gives Probation to Man With Violent History Who Broke Into Home of Mother and Chased Her Down the Street

This is something out of Clockwork Orange. Burt Te Manu Tangiata Rikihana, 27, was arrested in December after he forced his way into a home of a woman with a three-year-old child. He chased the mother down the street as she screamed. Despite a previous attempted murder conviction, the court gave him probation and community service which Rikihana correctly called “a joke.”
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