For a week, a scandal has grown over an anonymous accusation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. I previously wrote about the unfairness of this last minute accusation from an unnamed law professor who declined to be named. Moreover, the underlying letter has been in the possession of Democrats since July. Now, the mystery is over: Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford has come forward to say that she is indeed the accuser of Kavanaugh. It appears that the earlier leaks and media reports that this was a Stanford law professor were untrue. She is shown here from her high school yearbook picture. Notably, her lawyer has said that she passed a polygraph examination that found her account was truthful.
Category: Criminal law
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the recent allegation of sexual assault against Judge Brett Kavanaugh and the demand for a delay in his confirmation vote. Both Kavanaugh and the other man referenced in the anonymous letter have denied the allegations from their high school days. The reported law professor who contacted Congress appears to want the allegation considered by members but has refused to come forward and said that she did not want to be drawn into the controversy. If that was her position, Democrats have now done the opposite and leaked the letter’s details and called for a full investigation. If this is a law professor, it is unclear why she is not willing to come forward with an allegation of a sexual assault. She clearly thought that the allegation should be raised with Congress but has refused to come forward to substantiate the claims. That leaves Kavanaugh in a grossly unfair position in my view. UPDATE: Kavanaugh’s accuser has now gone public.
Here is the column:
Let’s just put it this way: Matthew McCloskey, 52, makes the guy with the electric fence at the bus stop look kid friendly.
Continue reading “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”
There is a curious criminal case out of Bolivar, Ohio where a grocery store employee was charged with felony theft worth $9,200. What is different about this case is that the almost $10,000 theft was composed of individual slices of lunch meat over the course of eight years at Giant Eagle. Continue reading “Deli Worker Charged With Felony For Eating Slices Of Lunch Meat”
There is a truly bizarre case out of Arizona where Paul Menchaca, 30, is accused of an elaborate scheme to trick caregivers into bathing him and changing his diaper. Menchaca allegedly convinced the women that he had Down syndrome to retain them for these uses. The caregivers grew suspicious when Menchaca was often aroused during these procedures. He now faces novel counts of sexual abuse based on his alleged fraud. Continue reading “Man Arrested In Arizona After Allegedly Convincing Caregiver That He Had Down Syndrome”
College of Southern Nevada Sociology Professor Mark Bird allegedly had a curious way of protesting President Trump: he shot himself in the arm. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Bird was considerate enough to tape a $100 bill inside the bathroom with a note that it was “for the janitor” — presumably for the mess left behind. Continue reading “Professor Allegedly Shoots Himself On Campus In Protest Of Trump”
I will have the pleasure of participating in the annual Supreme Court review today previewing the upcoming October term. The other panelists will be former Solicitor General Gregory Garre, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill. Associate Dean (and Supreme Court litigator) Alan Morrison will moderate the panel.
“Previewing the Supreme Court’s October Term 2018” will be held in the Jacob Burns Moot Court Room, 2000 H St NW, Washington, D.C. at 9:00.m. Continue reading “GW To Host Annual Supreme Court Review”
Yesterday, we discussed the prosecution of accused Russian agent Maria Butina and how prosecutors put out clearly false allegations that she traded sex for favors. Butina’s defense counsel Robert Driscoll called out the government for the clearly baseless allegations spread throughout the media. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has now responded by gagging counsel, an order that has become all too common in federal cases. Continue reading “Defense Counsel Calls Out DOJ For Falsely Accusing His Client Of Trading Sex For Access . . . Court Imposes Gag Order On Counsel”
We previously discussed Paul Guadalupe Gonzales, 45, the so-called “dine-and-dash dater” who would allegedly order expensive meals on first dates and then stiff the dates with the bill by disappearing. Now, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has announced four new charges of extortion that will threaten Gonzales with almost two decades in prison for his bizarre career as a criminal cad. The piling of charges seems to reflect the public anger more than the crimes. We are all disgusted by these accounts but almost a dozen counts of extortion seems a bit excessive. Continue reading ““Dine-And-Dash Dater” Hit With New Extortion Charges”
We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England (here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech. Now the South Yorkshire police department is making it clear that it does not just want citizens to report crimes but “incidents” involving offensive or insulting comments. This follows an effort to make wolf whistles a crime in England.
In a remarkable and disturbing concession, the Justice Department last week admitted that it actually has no evidence that accused Russian operative, Maria Butina, was trading sex for jobs or access. Prosecutors now say that they simply had mistaken joking texts for real offers of sex quid pro quos. If there was not ample leeway given prosecutors under defamation law, this would seem like libel due to a lack of sense of humor . . . or worse. Update: The Court has imposed a gag order on counsel.
Romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy, 68, has been arrested in Beaverton, Oregon for the killing of her husband. The author of “The Wrong Husband” is accused of killing her chef spouse of 27 years after praising him as “Mr. Right” and publicly grieving his murder. Update: Brophy also authored an essay entitled “How To Murder Your Husband.”
Continue reading ““Wrong Husband”: Author Arrested In Murder Of Husband”
Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was sentenced Friday to just 14 days in prison for lying to the FBI despite the position of Special Counsel Robert Mueller that he should spend at least six months in jail. The position of Mueller appeared to reflect a view that Papadopoulos was not as cooperative (or perhaps productive) as a witness. In the end, Papadopoulos appeared in an almost hostile position vis-a-vis Mueller. Continue reading “Papadopoulos Gets A 14-Day Sentence Despite Mueller Demand For 6 Months”
In an op-ed in The Herald Sun, UNC Professor of English John McGowan is the latest example of the moral and ethical relativism that is becoming increasingly common on our campuses in rationalizing acts of censorship or violence. McGowan writes that the UNC students were acting in a moral fashion in destroying a piece of public art that they disliked. I discussed the Silent Sam incident earlier.
Texas recently settled a legal fight over its failure to install air conditioning at the Wallace Pack Unit near College Station — a facility long deemed dangerously hot in the summer. In the wisdom only known to bureaucrats, the state spent $7 million to fight the lawsuit and ultimately paid $4 million to simply put in the air conditioning system. Continue reading “Texas Spends $7 Million Fighting Demand To Add Air Conditioning To Dangerously Hot Prison . . . Then Installs The System For $4 Million”