There is a surprising development in the case of former Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella Jr. and Michael Conahan in Pennsylvania. U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik has rejected the plea bargain given the two former judges who previously pleaded guilty in a scheme to steer juveniles to for-profit detention facilities for $2.6 million in kickbacks. The decision of Kosik shows the dangers of defendants speaking to the media between pleas and sentencings.
Category: Criminal law
Anderson County Attorney Frank Campbell in Kansas was reportedly suspended from practice for six months after he showed pictures of a 17-year-old girl being raped — after declining to prosecute the case. A lawsuit is now being planned, according to news reports.
Continue reading “Kansas Prosecutor Suspended After Showing Pictures of Rape of Teen Girl”
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled in favor of a Santeria priest — Jose Merced, 46 — who sacrificed goats in his Texas home in Euless. The court ruled that the prohibition on the ritual violated the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act (TRFRA).
Continue reading “Federal Appellate Court Rules in Favor of Santeria Priest in Home Sacrifices”
Rodell Vereen, 50, is facing a bizarre charge that he is a recidivist horse rapist after being captured on surveillance video at the Lazy B Stables in Conway, S.C. with the same horse — a 21-year-old mare named Sugar — that he had sex with before an earlier arrest. The crime of “buggery” is tragically not uncommon (here and here and here) but habitual arrests are rare.
Wisconsin National Guardsmen have filed a highly disturbing civil rights lawsuit against the city of Wisconsin Dells, its police chief and three officers. The complaint alleges that police officers Wayne W. Thomas and Collin H. Jacobson forced the two gulf war veterans to lick what was believed to be their own urine off the street in an alley as well as eat a plant believed to be doused with urine. Wisconsin Dells called itself the “waterpark capital of the World.”
Continue reading “Wisconsin Dells is Sued by National Guardsmen Who Claim that They Were Forced to Lick Up Urine in Alley by Officers”
Scotsman Rudi Boa, 28, and his girlfriend Gillian Brown were on a trip to New South Wales, Australia when they met English backpacker Alexander Christian York, 33. The couple and York had some drinks and soon got into an argument over evolution. York ended up stabbing Boa to death but was given just a five-year sentence because the court found him a decent chap and the killing an “aberration.”
Continue reading “Creationist Kills Evolutionist With Knife But Is Sentenced to Just Five Years After Court Finds Him a “Person of Good Character” and the Killing “A Complete Aberration””
We have been following the lawyers and judges implicated in the corruption scandal surrounding lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs. Now the scandal has claimed another individual: Mississippi judge Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Bobby DeLaughter, 55, has pleaded guilty.
Continue reading “Mississippi Judge Pleads Guilty To Federal Obstruction”
Bolivia has enacted the world’s first ban on all animals at a circus — both wild and domestic animals — because such use “constitutes an act of cruelty.” The ban comes just days after the latest video of alleged abuse of elephants released by PETA. While some countries ban the use of animals in circus, this is the first to encompass both wild and domesticated animals.
Continue reading “Bolivia Bans Circus Animals as Matter of Animal Cruelty”
DeKalb Officers Ryan White and C.M. Route are suspended pending an investigation in why they used a DeKalb County computer to run a check on President Barack Obama. Both are roughly two year veterans of the force.
Continue reading “Two Georgia Police Officers Suspended After Allegedly Running Criminal Checks on President Obama From Police Cruiser”
Karl Rove spoke to congressional investigators last week and reportedly admitted that he did play a role in the hiring and firing of federal prosecutors, including at least one of the nine U.S. Attorneys at the heart of the scandal.
Lawyer Pepin Tuma, 33, was speaking with friends on Saturday night about his outrage over the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. when he passed a group of D.C. police officers, including Second District Officer J. Culp. The lawyer started to chant “I hate the police” as he walked by and ended up under arrest.
Continue reading “Culp-able? Lawyer Arrested After Saying “I Hate the Police” in Front of D.C. Officers”
Now, this is a rare rape case. The female defendant is accused of raping a man in front of witnesses with a sex toy and then admits to the penetration but insists that it was a joke. That is the case of stripper Maree Naggs who was arrested after a “buck’s party” (bachelor party) in Australia.
Continue reading “Naggs at a Buck Party: Stripper Arrested for Rape Insists that Use of Sex Toy Was “Joke””
We have previously followed the work of tantriks in India, here. Now, one of these witchdoctors has been accused of beheading a five-year-old girl in a ritual to help a man produce healthy children.
Continue reading “Indian Tantrik Beheads Five-Year-Old Girl in Ritual to Give Man Healthy Male Heirs”
Tow Truck driver Nicholas Sparks, 25, is being cited as an example of the dangers of multi-tasking — particularly when you are driving a flatbed truck. Sparks is accused of texting on one cell phone while speaking on another cellphone — before hitting a car, crashing through a fence, sideswiping a house and then driving into an in-ground pool outside of Buffalo.
Continue reading “OMG Jst Drov N Pool BRT: Truck Driver Accused of Crashing While Texting on One Cellphone and Talking on Another”
The World Bank/IMF protest case had a sanctions hearing yesterday that had found its way into the media. Because I am lead counsel (with Dan Schwartz) in one of the two cases (Chang) against the District of Columbia, Federal government, Fairfax County, and various police officers, I will not comment on the controversy.
Continue reading “Federal Judge Calls for Investigation of “The Civil Equivalent of the Ted Stevens Case””