Goodhue County District Judge Timothy Blakely, 46, is accused of being a rainmaker from the bench. He was found by a state investigation to have been referring parties in his court to his own divorce lawyer, “Super Lawyer” Christine Stroemer who allegedly gave him a discount on his own bill for fees.
Category: Lawyering
U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land issued a stern warning to attorney Orly Taitz (left) and others in the so-called “birther” campaign: do not file another such “frivolous” lawsuit or you will face sanctions. Land threw out the lawsuit filed on behalf of Capt. Connie Rhodes who is an Army surgeon challenging her deployment orders due to President Barack Obama’s alleged ineligibility to serve as President. Land (a Bush appointee) noted that “[u]nlike in ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ simply saying something is so does not make it so.”
Romell Broom, 52, was given a rare one-week reprieve when officials struggled for hours to find a vein strong enough to handle lethal injection. The scene was particularly grotesque for critics of the death penalty as Broom awaited his death for hours as he was pricked and probed. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland eventually ordered the one-week delay to allow prison officials time to figure out the best vein to use to execute him.
Continue reading “Ohio Death Row Inmate Given One-Week Reprieve After Officials Fail to Find a Vein”
Alvin Dymally selected a poor place for a pick up. Dymally was a juror in the rape trial of fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, 35. While other jurors were staring at the defendant, Dymally apparently could not take his eyes off the defendant’s sister Sanjana. Dymally would later, before the jury verdict was announced, pass Sanjana a note indicating his interest in her. Alexander was eventually sentenced to 59 years to life for 16 counts of rape while Dymally, Juror No. 12, will receive a $1000, 120 hours of community service, and a year’s mandatory participation in EHarmony. (Ok, I made up the last condition).
The death match is on! Hulk Hogan versus Morris “Sandy” Weinberg Jr. This grudge match is set for Florida with a $1.5 million purse.
Continue reading “Grudge Match: Hulk Hogan Sues Zuckerman Spaeder For Malpractice”
Attorney William Halby has lost another effort to allow him to deduct his “medical” use of prostitutes from his taxes. He lost a claim of over $100,000 in deductions before the federal Tax Court.
It is not clear what is more interesting the legal problems in the trial over Merck’s osteoporosis drug Fosamax or the alleged assaults occurring in the jury room during deliberations. United States District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan was forced to issue the novel “time out” order this week and send home the eight men and women on the jury after lawyers heard yelling from the jury room and a juror alleged that she had been physically threatened and had a chair thrown at her.
Continue reading “Eight Angry Men: Jury Sent Home After Alleged Brawl During Deliberations”
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Virga improperly influenced a jury to find a defendant guilty in a sexual assault case. The actions of the former prosecutor have resulted in a new trial being ordered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Continue reading “Ninth Circuit: California Judge Improperly Influenced Jury to Convict Defendant”
Former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Dennis Fisher has been barred from practicing law for another year as punishment for stealing two knives. He was accused of not only stealing the knives but resisting employees who tried to stop him.
Continue reading “Former Prosecutor Suspended for Shoplifting”
The murder of John Colman is not exactly a cold case, it is positively glacial. New York detectives have taken up the case 400 years after the English seaman was found murdered and buried in a shallow grave. No weapon, no motive. The culprit, however, is believed to be out of the New York jurisdiction and even Interpol.
OK, this is incredibly disgusting but it is another example of what lawyers sometimes have to deal with in court. James Orr, 66, stopped his trial for robbery and kidnapping when he removed his colostomy bag and began to consume the contents. While this particular act is thankfully uncommon, the courts have to grapple with such acts to terminate trials. Judges are reluctant to reward such conduct with a mistrial, but there are not many good options for the judge. In this case, however, Common Pleas Court Judge Ethna Cooper appears intent upon continuing the trial and prosecutors have argued the act was nothing more than a tactic to stop the trial.
Continue reading “One Orr in the Water: Defendant Stops Trial After Eating Own Waste in Court”
When he served as the attorney general for Ontario, Michael Bryant argued for harsh punishment for criminals, including a crackdown traffic crimes such a speeders. He is now accused in a shocking act of road rage that killed a bicyclist who Bryant allegedly rammed into a mailbox.
Judge John Doyle is facing accusations that he is a latte-hating, cigar-smoker baiting jurist or worse. Doyle recused himself after losing his patience with a bank lawyer, Farzad Milani, and telling him that he could not allow the lawyer to sit in his office “smoking his Cohiba cigars and drinking his lattes” while the court does all the work. He should be less worried about playing around with judicial ethics as ticking off those jackbooted, over-caffeinated thugs at Starbucks.
Continue reading “Judge Recuses Himself After Denouncing Latte Drinking, Cigar-Smoking Lawyer”
The annual selection of the top 500 lawyers in America has begun at LawDragon. You can vote for your favorite colleagues, teachers, or counsel.
Continue reading “Top 500: Vote For Your Favorite Lawyers”
Attorney Dimitrios Biller was the former managing counsel for Toyota Motor Sales USA and handled rollover cases for the company. He has now done a rollover of his own — accusing the car manufacturer of destroying evidence of rollover in a “ruthless conspiracy” to hide dangers.