Category: Criminal law

Model Mayhem: Florida Model Arrested After Stomping and Beating Puppy

Keevonna C’Ante Wilson, 24, is a model and actress who, if guilty, is proof that beauty is only skin deep.  I am not sure what it is like being her photographer or her manager but you sure do not want to be her pet, Chasity.  She is charged with animal cruelty after stomping on the puppy.  Appropriately, she appears on the Model Mayhem site, where she refers to her as “The Flawless Beauty.” Wilson   Warning the video below show violence that will be disturbing to many viewers.

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Gun Control After Heller: The Second Amendment Requires More Than Passing Rational Responses To An Irrational Act

260px-capitol_building_full_viewBelow is my column in the Hill Newspaper on the proposals for new gun control measures in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre.  As I discuss below, there are some obvious possible measures that could pass constitutional muster like banning bump stocks (which allow semi-automatic weapons to perform more like automatic weapons) and conversion kits.  However, these proposals would not have prevented the massacre.  There are many “work arounds” for semi-automatic weapons and Paddock would have likely passed any enhanced background checks.  Nevertheless, GOP members have expressed interest in some additional gun control  measures.  

Here is the column:

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Federal Court Rejects Challenge To Arpaio Pardon

Joe_arpaioI have received a fair amount of criticism for writing that President Donald Trump was within his authority to pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as well as my skepticism of the challenge to the pardon by Berkeley law dean Erwin Chemerinsky and others.  While I opposed the pardon and said that I viewed Arpaio was in open contempt of the court, I viewed the challenge to the pardon to be without merit.  Now U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton has rejected the challenge by Chemerinsky and dismissed the guilty verdict in the contempt case.

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Britain Moves To Criminalize Reading Extremist Material On The Internet

440px-Official_portrait_of_Amber_Rudd_crop_2England flagFor years, civil libertarians have warned that Great Britain has been in a free fall from the criminalization of speech to the expansion of the surveillance state.  Now the government is pursuing a law that would make the repeated viewing of extremist Internet sites a crime punishable to up to 15 years in prison.  It appears that the government is not satiated by their ever-expanding criminalization of speech. They now want to criminalize even viewing sites on the Internet.  As always, officials are basically telling the public to “trust us, we’re the government.”  UK home secretary Amber Rudd is pushing the criminalization of reading as part of her anti-radicalization campaign . . . which turns out to be an anti-civil liberties campaign.

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“How Will Your Quest End?” Two Women Escape Jail Only To Get Trapped In Escape Room

download-1download-2Kelsie Laine Marie Mast, 23, and Samantha Faye Toope, 20, should have probably stopped with one escape.  The two prisoners escaped from jail in Edmonton, but later visited an escape room called “SideQuests Adventures.”  They never made it out of the escape room before police arrived and took them back to their first room at the Edmonton Institution for Women.  The business slogan is “How Will Your Quest End?” The answer for these two offenders is badly.

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Drexel University Professor Calls Las Vegas Massacre An Outgrowth Of “Trumpism”

screen-shot-2017-04-17-at-5-16-35-pm-e1493074583232drexel-newsealWe previously discussed the controversies swirling around Associate Professor George Ciccariello-Maher when he tweeted in 2016 that “all I want for Christmas is white genocide.”  Now he is again in the news with tweets that blame the Las Vegas massacre on “Trumpism” and “white victimization.”  There is still no confirmation of any motivation of Stephen Paddock but that does not appear to be relevant to Ciccariello-Maher.  It is part of a torrent of comments using the massacre to amplify political or social views.  Recently, Pat Robertson blamed the massacre on disrespect for Trump and the flag in society.

 

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Murderer Sues Police For Excessive Force In Tackling Him After He Assaulted His Own Lawyer In Court

washingtonRandy Washington, 36, may face a rather unsympathetic jury in his lawsuit against courtroom deputy sheriffs for excessive force.  Washington has accused them of excessive force in restraining him after he decked his lawyer in court.  Washington hit Jessica Lyons as she tried to defend him on a murder charge.  Washington says that he was not resisting but was slammed to the ground — resulting in a broken wrist.

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Minnesota Man Arrested For 28th Times For DWI

ows_150705582693799We have previously discussed the difficulty in dealing with recidivist drunk drivers.  However, Danny Lee Bettcher, 64, is something of an over-achiever.   He was arrested for the 28th time for driving while intoxicated.  That is believed to be a state record — a dubious achievement made worse by what you stated to court after his prior arrest.

 

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With Friends Like This: Egypt Sought To Smuggle Over 30,000 RPGs In Violation of North Korean Embargo

Egypt1600px-Flag_of_North_Korea.svgWe recently discussed the controversy over U.S. taxpayers giving billions to Egypt as that country persecutes homosexuals, including its recent ordering of anal examinations of suspected gay men.  Now a new report indicates that the United States suspended aid temporarily when it learned that the Egyptian government was knowingly circumventing international trade bans with North Korea.  While North Korea was threatening the world with nuclear war and specifically targeting the United States, our “ally” was secretly trying to pay North Korea $23 million for over 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades.

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Some Appellants Never Get A Break

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

In our criminal justice system, appellants tend to fall into three categories: Those who ultimately prevail in their arguments; those who are unable to convince justices of their case’s merits; and those who fall off a cliff and strike every sharp rock on their way to the bottom. Steven Canha apparently suffered the fate of the last category.

After extensive appeals, one of which was to the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Canha lost what could be his final personal restraint petition before Washington’s courts of appeals and now the state’s Supreme Court halted the years long contention for his release from prison.

Mr. Canha argues, in short, for a resentencing based on Washington’s determinate sentencing grid by reason of incompatibility of foreign laws to Washington’s and argues for removal of prior convictions to reduce his prison term. But being probably the most unfortunate man in recent memory, a unanimous Court determined applicability of prior violations based largely upon obsolete laws (effective at the time) and time/date dictated ultimately how long his imprisonment occurred.

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The Mystery of Don McGahn’s Safe: The Special Counsel Demand Could Shed Light On Two Mysterious Documents

lock-1292282_1280350px-US-WhiteHouse-Logo.svgBelow is my column in the Hill newspaper on the recent demand by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of material in over a dozen different areas.  The most intriguing is likely to be the two documents referenced by Trump personal counsel Ty Cobb in an overheard conversation at a popular D.C. restaurant.  The conversation has many in the Beltway scratching their heads and a few smirking.  Cobb is an experienced lawyer who sees this investigation as unlikely to produce any compelling basis for a criminal charge.  Conversely, White House Counsel Don McGahn is properly concerned with the danger of establishing precedent in the area of executive privilege that could undermine future presidents.  Cobb is a bit too experienced in this town to make such an amateurish mistake as discussing loudly an internal fight over the documents in McGahn’s safe — a previously undisclosed dispute.  It would certainly be intriguing if the reporter was told to have lunch at BLT and bring his notebook (Technically Cobb did not leak anything in being overheard).  It would have been a truly Machiavellian move against McGahn. However, there is no evidence supporting such a theory.  Ifthat were the case, the reporter’s story would be highly misleading since he clearly conveyed that this was a pure coincidence and a surprise.  Moreover, such an arrangement would be unethical in my view even if Cobb thought it in the best interest of the President.  These remain documents under a claim of privilege and presumably there was a decision not to make the disclosure.  I am inclined to give Cobb the benefit of the doubt, though that means assuming that he committed a rather rookie error.
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Duterte: Shoot My Son, Please

rodrigo_duterte_and_laotian_president_bounnhang_vorachith_croppedPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte has shocked the world with his blood-soaked reign including his  orders to police to murder drug suspects and his bragging about his own murders.  Thousands of suspected drug dealers have been killed under Duterte.  Duterte has mocked those who object to the extrajudicial murders, including teenagers found dead.  Now Duterte is telling police to kill his son (who has been implicated in drugs and corruption) is he is found to be involved in the drug trade.

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California Armed Robber Who Stabbed Good Samaritan Will Now Reportedly Sue The Victim For Stabbing Him In Self Defense

download-1Ryan Flores, 30, is reportedly planning a tort action against Cregg Jerri, 58, for stabbing him in a California Starbuck.  Such a battery lawsuit would make perfect sense after being stabbed 17 times. The problem is that he was stabbed in the course of an armed robbery and Jerri was credited as the hero who ran forward to protect the staff from the gun-touting Flores. The filing would presumably not contest the right to use the privilege of self-defense but argue that Jerri somehow exceeded that authority.

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“Quite Literally Impossible”: White Supremacist Dylann Roof Demands New Counsel After Being Given Jewish And Indian Lawyers

charleston-liveblog2-jumboWhite supremacist Dylann Roof says that he has something of a problem on his hands: he has court-appointed counsel who happen to be Jewish and Indian.  He has asked the court to replace Alexandra Yates and Sapna Mirchandani in his appeal of his death sentence for the massacre of nine people in the Emmanuel AME Church during a Bible study in 2015.  Roof appears to believe that the right of counsel includes the right to white counsel.  It doesn’t.  The court should not be a vehicle for racial or religious discrimination to cater to the wishes of a homicidal fanatic.  More importantly, that is the view of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

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Egyptian Professor Facing Discipline After Saying That Necrophilia Is Permissible Under Islam

bd64e1b3-19b3-438f-b3cf-53db3791d08aSometimes being a supporter of free speech can be really really really hard.  A leading expert of “comparative jurisprudence” and Sunni cleric at al-Azhar University, Dr. Sabri Abdel Raouf, has been placed under review by his university (and ordered by the state media regulator to stay off the air) after dispensing some rather chilling advice on Sharia law and Islamic values.  Abdel Raouf had told viewers that it is is permissible under Islamic law for a husband to have sex with his dead wife in what is called “goodbye intercourse.” The action taken by the university and the government highlights the curious line drawn over the discussion of Islam in Egypt.   Moreover, it is a rather bizarre example of the debate that we are having in this country over the right of academics to engage in free (and controversial) speech outside of their schools.  In this case, both the university and the government have moved to prevent anyone from airing these views as an insult to Islam.

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Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks