It took a jury only two hours to acquit Denver Police officer Cpl. Michael Cordova of excessive force, even though a videotape (below) of his actions breaking the teeth of John Heaney caused public outrage. Cordova faced a charge of third-degree assault after he slammed Heaney’s face into the pavement while Cordova served as a member on an undercover anti-scalping Vice unit.
Category: Criminal law
When police raided the home of drug dealer Michael Difalco, it did not take long for them to find what they were looking for. The officers of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force were caught on video playing Wii Bowling during the nine-hour drug raid.
Continue reading “Bowling for Dealers: Florida Police Caught on Tape Playing Wii During Drug Raid”
When citizens were alarmed at the sight of naked men running around intersections at 4 pm, they immediately called the police. They then learned that there were already officers on the scene — running around the police van naked.
Continue reading “Naked Gun: Police Called After Citizens See Naked Men Running Around Intersections . . . Only To Find The Police Were Already on the Scene”
Police in Merced, California are looking into a case of a double amputee who claims that he was tasered twice by police in his wheelchair, partially stripped in public, and then held for days without charge. Gregory Williams, 40, was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and resisting arrest but never charged. Neighbors complained that the police were abusive and humiliating in their treatment of Williams.
Continue reading “California Police Repeatedly Taser and Partially Strip Double Amputee in Public — But Bring No Charges After Six Days Incarceration”
The post-trial proceedings in the case of former congressman William Jefferson took a sordid turn today with the discussion of yet another allegation of an FBI agent having a sexual relationship with a witness. FBI agent John Guandolo appears to have had such a relationship with the government’s lead informant, Lori Mody. The government surprised many in the trial in declining to call Mody to the stand. Judge T.S. Ellis III refused to order a new trial and insisted that the defense had no proof that the relationship had an impact on testimony in the case or, more importantly, the verdict of the jury.
Shaheed Wright, 25, was arrested in New Jersey last week after he allegedly hid cocaine in his four-year-old son’s jacket and told him it was “candy. His son believed him and took the cocaine to school and shared it with his classmates.
Continue reading “Candy Addiction: Father Arrested After His Son Handed Out Cocaine in Daycare After Being Told It Was “Candy””
In Oklahoma, Rebekah Leigh Crouch, 27, has a curious way of preserving a relationship: she is accused of running over her husband’s best friend. Crouch believed that the friend, Mathew Dewayne Dowling, 33, was encouraging her husband to leave her so she allegedly ran him over after an argument with her husband.
Continue reading “Wife Argues With Husband So She Allegedly Runs Over . . . His Best Friend”
Lawsuits against bars and businesses under Dram Shop laws have become routine, though still somewhat controversial when owners are sued for the excessive drinking of third parties, here and here and here. We have seen a few cases where parents or home owners have been sued, though those cases are far more controversial, here. A case in New York, however, pushes this line of cases to the farthest extreme. The parents of Robert Ogle, 16, have sued the people who they say are responsible for their son’s death by a hit-and-run driver: the people who threw a birthday party where Robert became intoxicated and the owner of the car that was stolen by the hit-and-run driver.
Continue reading “Teenager Killed on His Way Back From a Birthday Party By a Drunken Ex-Con Driving a Stolen Car — Parents Sue Parents of the Birthday Boy and the Owner of the Stolen Car”
Pastor Jessica Banks, 65, has been sentenced to life in prison for drugging, beating, and locking up her five adopted daughters. The conviction includes counts of sexual abuse for two of the girls.
Continue reading ““Suffer Little Children . . . and Forbid Them Not”: California Pastor Gets Life Sentence For Abuse of Adopted Daughters”
The city of Wellford, South Carolina may be a felon’s dream come true. Mayor Sallie Peake has banned police officers from chasing suspects on foot or in a car.
Continue reading “I Walk The Line: Town Mayor Bans Police From Chasing Suspects”
This week, prosecutors charged a mother with holding a six-year-old boy down while ordering her five-year-old son to beat him in the face, here. Now, a Maryland mother, Kimberley Lyn Cudanin, 34, is accused of telling her 16-year-old son Audre and at least four friend to attack a 14-year-old boy, Malaki Malloy. Malloy was stabbed and beaten.
Continue reading “Baltimore Mom Accused Telling Son to Attack Teenage Boy”
Generally, the law distinguishes between casual buyers and commercial sellers in tort and criminal law. For example, product liability for defects does not extend to garage sales and transactions between private individuals. However, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning that the government will now be enforcing rules under the “Resale Round-up” program that can result in fines of $15 million for that Easy-Bake Oven that you want to unload.
Continue reading “Seller Beware: New Federal Program Allows for Casual Sellers to Be Fined for Up to $15 Million”
As someone who represents people accused of unlawful demonstrations (and were not in fact protesters), I have finally found a video that I can use in their defense.
Continue reading “Demonstrated Genius: Video Prank Shows How Innocent People Can Unwittingly Become Radical Protest Leaders”
An Arizona coupe, Lisa and Anthony “A.J.” Demaree, have filed an interesting lawsuit against Walmart (and the state) after being accused of sexual abuse and having their children taken away the State. Their suspected crime? Developing pictures of their children taking a bath.
Continue reading “Arizona Couple Sues Wal-Mart After Store Calls the Police on Them For Developing Pictures of Their Children in a Bathtub — And the Children Are Taken By the State”
We have seen Facebook involved in various alleged crimes through the years (here, here). However, Jonathan Parker, 19, in Martinsburg, West Virginia, has created a category of his own in alleged Facebook felonies: he was arrested after leaving his Facebook account on a victim’s computer — apparently after stopping during a burglary to log into his page.
Continue reading “Alleged West Virginia Burglar Nailed After Facebook Fix”