As prosecutors seek to prove a difficult criminal theory in the Lori Drew MySpace case, here, MySpace won a critical case against it in New Orleans. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that MySpace could not be sued by a Texas girl and her family over a sexual assault by a man she met on the site. The ruling upheld the dismissal of the $30 million lawsuit by the trial judge in 2007. Continue reading “MySpace Sexual Assault Case Thrown Out by Fifth Circuit”
Category: Criminal law
This week, another major body part case was announced. Henry Reid, the former head of the UCLA cadaver program was indicted with Ernest Nelson in a scheme for sell body parts that netted $1 million dollars. Continue reading “Ex-UCLA Cadaver Program Head Indicted in Body Part Scheme”
Andrew Glover, 60, of New Britain, Connecticut is a bit unhappy with the local police. He alleges that he was sitting at home when the police broke into his apartment illegally, ripped out his catheter, tosses the apartment, and generally assaulted him. They had the wrong apartment in a search of child pornography. Continue reading “Police Allegedly Raid Wrong Home, Tore Apart Apartment, Ripped Out Man’s Catheter, and Assault Innocent Man”
Willie Campbell, 42, is a homeless man who is HIV-positive. In May 2006, he spit in the face of three Dallas police men who arrested him. He was sentenced to 35 years for harassing a public servant with a deadly weapon: his saliva. It is a very disturbing sentence given the lack of a credible threat to passing AIDS by saliva.
Continue reading “HIV-Positive Man Gets 35 Years for Spitting on Officer”
Eder Rojas, 19, was in court this week after being accused of starting a fire in an airplane bathroom during a flight. That is weird enough. What makes it weirder still is he was the flight attendant on Compass Airlines (a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines). Continue reading “Please Use Only Your Designated, Non-Flaming Toilet: Flight Attendent Arrested After Starting Fire in Airplane Bathroom”
A surprising development in the tragedy of Megan Meier, the 13-year-old girl who committed suicide in a MySpace hoax. Lori Drew, the woman who pretended to be a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans, was indicted by a federal grand jury in California. Continue reading “Lori Drew Indicted in MySpace Suicide Case of Megan Meier”
Jorge Espinal believes that guns are not just for hunting and self-defense, but personal grooming and scratching. When he decided to use his revolver to scratch his back during a late night poker game, he learned why back scratchers don’t kill people, people kill people.” Continue reading “This is My Back Scratcher, This is my Gun . . .: Man Shoots Himself in Effort to Stop an Itch”
Japanese police appear helpful to a fault. Hifumi Kubota, 45, was arrested after he doused himself with kerosene. He refused to change his clothes and the Japanese police did not insist on the change. Instead, when he asked at the station, they gave him his only request: a lighter. Continue reading “Serve and Protect: Police Give Lighter to Man Who Doused Himself in Kerosene”
Rudy Villanueva, 31, known as Bird Road Rudy, had a brief but illustrious career as a filmmaker. The gang leader made a clip for YouTube where he taunted the Miami Police while holding guns, inviting them to “come and get some.” They did and not Bird Road Rudy is going to jail for six years. Continue reading “Video Taunt Leads to Arrest: End of the Road for “Bird Road Rudy””
Many entries on this site have focused on the treatment of women in Muslim countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran. Michael Slackman received an insight in how both women and rape is viewed by some Saudi men on a recent trip.
Continue reading “Rape in Saudi Arabia: Reporter Has Eye-Opening Conversation with Young Saudi Males”
In San Francisco, the government has unveiled a new superseding 15-count indictment to replace the prior five-count indictment. The indictment covers basically the same ground and corrects a badly drafted original indictment criticized by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston. Continue reading “Barry Bonds Hit with 15-Count Superceding Indictment”
Known on the Internet only as “Soulja Girl” after she appeared in the video below on a train attacking an elderly lady, the police have now arrested Nafiza Ziyad, 25. She is facing charges of simple assault and two counts of disorderly conduct. Continue reading “Shock Video: “Soulja Girl” Attacks Elderly Woman; Later Arrested”
There will be no expelliarmus orders in English prisons. English inmates have won the right to keep twigs in their cells to use as wands. This is still better than the American prisoner’s demanding to have Thor’s hammer and sword available to them. Continue reading ““Casting a Spell, Boss:” Inmates Win Right to Keep “Magic Wands” in Cells”
A 13 year old Ralph Hardy from Texas knows how to have a good time. He stole his Dad’s credit card, took his friends on a $30,000 spree and then hired two hookers to play Halo in a hotel room. It appears that there are just some things that a good old-fashioned Texas hooker will not do. Continue reading “Hardy Lad: 13-Year-Old Steals Dad’s Credit Card to Hire Hookers — To Play Halo”
Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Greg Damm is the focus of a blistering condemnation by the trial and appellate courts of his alleged prosecutorial misconduct in a Las Vegas case. The case against five individuals, attorneys Daniel Chapman and Sean Flanagan, involved alleged securities trading violations. Damm is accused for failing to turn over 650 pages of critical evidence after telling the court that all evidence had been produced for the defense. Continue reading “Dammed if You Don’t: Ninth Circuit Dismisses Criminal Case Due to Flagrant Prosecutorial Abuse”