The Observer has published an article detailing a confidential Vatican document from the 1960s that instructed Catholic bishops around the world to cover up cases of sexual abuse or face discipline — including expulsion from the church. The document in Latin bears the seal of Pope John XXIII. It reads like a Vatican-version of Omertà.
Continue reading “Omertà: Vatican Ordered Secrecy in Abuse Cases”
Category: Criminal law
London police are investigating an unnamed Saudi prince in the murder of one of his servants. A 32-year-old Saudi national was found dead from strangulation and severe head injuries at the posh five-star Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, Central London.
Continue reading “London Police Investigate Saudi Prince in Murder of Servant”
I just saw this video on Reddit of a guy who sees an Olympic torch and sees not a symbol of international cooperation and competition but a lighter for his cigarette. Next time he should do what other people do and use an AK-47, here.
Continue reading “Video: Man Arrested For Lighting Cigarette on Olympic Torch”
Television presenter Ray Gosling has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the BBC ran a segment where the 70-year-old confessed to smothering his lover who was suffering from AIDS. He starts the segment by saying that he wanted to reveal his secret: “I killed someone.”
The Virginia legislature passed a flurry of bills stripping away limitations on gun possession in the state. After intense lobbying from the National Rifle Association and over $1 million in NRA campaign contributions, the lawmakers passed 20 gun bills expanding possession and ownership rights in the state.
Continue reading “Guns-O-Plenty: Virginia Passes 20 Gun Bills”
Christina FourHorn is suing the Denver police department in a bizarre mistaken identity case that led to her jailing — and an alleged refusal of police to listen to repeated efforts to show that they had the wrong person. It is only the latest in such mistaken identity arrest cases.
Continue reading “Close Enough For Police Work? Denver Police Arrest Mother on Way to Pick Up Daughter At School — Despite the Fact that She Looks Nothing Like Suspect”
Redondo Beach City Prosecutor Brenda Wells is receiving considerable heat over her decision not to charge Torrance Police Sgt. Michael Mastick, who was involved in an off-duty hit-and-run collision. He admitted that he fled the scene because “judgment was impaired by alcohol.” A novel defense to be sure but it seems to have worked.
Continue reading “Prosecutor Refuses to Charge Police Officer Who Allegedly Commits Hit-and-Run, Lies About Accident, and Then Defends His Actions As “Impaired By Alcohol””
We have another case of officers arresting a distraught family members at the scene of an accident. This one involves James Rourke of Doylesburg, Pa., who had rushed to the scene after he learned that his 19-year-old son Freddy was in a serious car accident with a friend and still trapped in the car. The photos from the scene are horrific. If he thought things could not get much worse, Rourke was wrong. The arrival of two officers lmer Hertzog and James Erme would result in Rourke’s arrest and charges with a maximum penalty of ten years in prison.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney came out this weekend in an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl to proclaim “I was a big supporter of waterboarding.” It is an astonishing public admission since waterboarding is not just illegal but a war crime. It is akin to the Vice President saying that he supported bank robbery or murder-for-hire as a public policy.
Continue reading “Cheney: “I Was a Big Supporter of Waterboarding””
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is fighting with another judge and this one seems ready to hold him in contempt in Mesa, Arizona. While Arpaio routinely disregards and even investigates local judges who oppose his controversial policies or actions, here, he picked the wrong fight with a federal judge this time. U.S. district judge Murray Snow has formally found grounds for sanctioning Arpaio for the acknowledged destruction of records in a lawsuit involving racial profiling.
Continue reading “A Mesa in Arizona: Judge Finds Basis for Contempt Sanction Against Arpaio”
We previously
followed the case of Gerald Amidon, who sued the Boise police department for allegedly threatening to sodomize him with a taser and using excessive force in his arrest, including tasering him on the buttocks. He has now settled for only $150,000 and, despite a highly disturbing tape of the incident, the police department is able to claim no fault as part of the settlement.
Continue reading “Boise Police Officers Taser Man on Buttocks, Threaten to Rape Him With Taser, and Then Claim No Fault in Modest Settlement”
Palestinian officials are largely supporting Rafiq Husseini, a former Palestinian intelligence officer and top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is embroiled in a sex-for-favors scandal. However, Abbas has now dismissed his aide and called for an investigation after he was allegedly captured in an embarrassing video, here.
Continue reading “Sex Tape Leads Abbas To Fire Top Aide and Call for an Investigation”
According to police, Clifford Garrison is simply irresistible to women. Known as “The Honeymoon Bandit,” Garrison allegedly woos women and then runs away with their money. It is the wooing part that leaves me a bit confused.
Continue reading “Meet Clifford Garrison: The Alleged “Honeymoon Bandit””
The Obama Administration is appealing a ruling in favor of privacy before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit — seeking to allow it to track people by their cellphones and arguing that there is no privacy expectations to prevent tracking without probable cause. It is another example of Obama’s continued assault on civil liberties — and the failure of liberals to call him to account for such policies.
Continue reading “Obama Administration Seeks To Strip Cellphone Users of Privacy Protections”
Kenyan police showed the world what state-sponsored homophobia looks like this week when police raided a same-sex wedding and arrested all suspected homosexuals.
Continue reading “Wedding Crashers: Kenya Arrests Couple and Guests At Same-Sex Marriage While Protesters Call For The Suspects To Be Burned Alive”