Category: Criminal law

Wisconsin Man Arrested After Leaving Cellphone at Bar Containing Child Pornography

aaron_kleinAaron R. Klein, 24, of Brookfield, Wisconsin may spend a number of years in prison for what began as an unpaid bar bill. Klein was unable to pay his bar tab and agreed to leave his cellphone as security at the bar. When the bartender opened the phone to find Klein’s telephone number, he discovered child pornography.
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Burrito Bomb: South Carolina Charges Teen with Throwing Deadly Missile at Car

1014092inside1South Carolina police have charged a 15-year-old boy with the serious offense of throwing a deadly missile at a moving car. The missile was a burrito. Driver John Addie says that a hard object (possibly a bottle) hit his car before the burrito came through his window.
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Detroit’s $18.5 Million Solitaire Game

180px-KPatienceDetroit has long held the reputation as one of the worst run cities in the nation, particularly with its top politicians continually the subject of corruption scandals and criminal indictments, here. Now, an internal report has revealed that the city spent more than $18.5 million on an in-car computer system that is so poorly designed and used that investigators found that “its most common use today is a platform to play solitaire.”

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The Scales of Justice: Oregon Man Pleads Guilty to Fish Murder

260xStory180px-Betta_splendens_paleIt appears that Oregon police take fish murder more seriously than Texas police. We previously saw how police declined to charge a woman who fried and ate her ex-husband’s pet fish, here. Now, Donald Earl Fite III has pleaded guilty to stabbing Sarah Harris’ pet betta (Siamese fighting) fish, DeLorean, to death when she (inexplicably) declined to resume her relationship with him. DeLorean was found at the crime scene on the wooden floor with a knife in its back.
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Eagle Scout Suspended for Having 2-Inch Pocketknife Locked in Car

293499_GThe same week as the horrendous story of a six-year-old cub scout being suspended and sent to reform school for bringing his cub scout mess kit to eat lunch (here), New York educators have added another ridiculous case out of the “zero tolerance” madness gripping schools. Matthew Whalen is a 17-year-old senior at Lansingburgh High School who has just completed basic training to be a soldier. He kept a 2-inch keychain pocketknife locked in his car with other camping equipment. When the school learned about the knife, they suspended him and, when he appealed, they added 15 days for the Eagle Scout.
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Murder, She Spoke: Court Overturns Convictions Due to Prosecutors Use of Defendant’s Nickname “Murder”

gavel2There is an important decision out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where the conviction of Laval Farmer was overturned due to the prosecutors’ repeated use of his nickname “murder.” After all, his nickname is not “Attempted Murder” Farmer, which is what he was tried for. My only regret is that he was not represented by Richard “Racehorse” Haynes so that the prosecutors could have told the jury not to let “a race horse clear murder.”
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Tall Tale or Felony Crime? Colorado Man Charged With “Stolen Valor” After Making Up Heroic Stories

strandlof-richRichard Strandlof lived a life of distinction. He spoke to children and the media as a survivor first of the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11 and then survived a roadside bomb that killed four fellow Marines. He will now add a further distinction as a defendant in a rare “stolen valor” prosecution after his claims of service were proven false.

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Question of the Day: Besides Woody Allen, Who Is The Last Guy Polanski Would Want as a Character Witness?

180px-Frédéric_Mitterrand_2008-1It appears that when I suggested Woody Allen was the last person Polanski who want as an advocate (here), I spoke too hastily. As the French continue their campaign to force the return of Roman Polanski to their country (and avoid extradition to the United States for his rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1997), a new controversy has emerged from the Sarkozy government. The culture minister advocating for the famed director is the nephew of the late Socialist French president Francois Mitterand — Frédéric Mitterrand. Mitterrand appears to have more than a platonic interest in the underlying controversy.

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Bountiful Birth: Utah Man Misses Birth of Child After Being Arrested for Groping the Delivery Nurse

20091009__nurseassault_1010~P1_200Adam Jay Manning of Bountiful, Utah is not exactly going to be picked as Daddy of the Year. Indeed, when his kid asks where Manning was when he was born, he will be able to proudly state “I was in jail for groping the delivery nurse.”

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Something Borrowed . . . : Tennessee Couple Spends Honeymoon in Jail After Burglarizing Wedding Chapel Where They Were Married

DykesBrian.boxMcGheeM.story01Brian T. Dykes, 21, and Mindy K. McGhee, 24, took the “something borrowed, something blue” thing a bit too literally. Hours after their marriage in Sevierville, Tennessee, they returned to the Angel’s View Wedding Chapel at the Black Bear Ridge Resort to burglarize it. They spent their honeymoon in separate cells.
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The Good Faith Defense: Parents Given More Lenient Treatment When Children Die in Faith-Based Neglect

thumb_praying_handsWe have another case of a child dying from a relatively minor condition while surrounded by praying adults. Kent Schaible, 2, died of bacterial pneumonia because the parents Herbert and Catherine Schaible believed in faith-healing and declined to get medical attention for the child in Philadelphia. This is strikingly similar to the case of Leilani and Dale Neumann in Wisconsin who were recently given light sentences in such a faith-based case. As shown below, difficult questions are raised by the disparate treatment given parents who neglect children for religious as opposed to non-religious reasons. Continue reading “The Good Faith Defense: Parents Given More Lenient Treatment When Children Die in Faith-Based Neglect”

Gilding the Lilly: Phoenix Police Board Clears Officer Who Mistakingly Shot Homeowner Six Times

phoenix police logoPhoenix police officer Brian Lilly has been cleared in the shooting of homeowner Tony Arambula by a police board. The Phoenix Use of Force Board determined Lilly acted properly in responding to a call of a burglary and shooting Arambula six times — even though Arambula, 36, did not threaten Lilly and the family claims Lilly shot him twice while he was laying on the floor.

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Evil Twins? Two Pediatricians-Brothers Accused of Sexual Abuse of Male Patients

abc_blankenburgs_2_091007_mnPolice in Hamilton, Ohio are claiming that twin brothers who are practicing pediatricians share a certain deviate gene. Drs. Mark and Scott Blankenburg (both 53) are accused of having sex with young male patients and even “sharing” victims in a criminal complaint that reads like the writings of the Marquis de Sade. They allegedly paid the boys with drugs or money and videotaped some of the sexual acts.

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