Patricia Sylvester may have learned the ultimate lesson of “never ask a question in trial that you do not know the answer to.” Sylvester, 49, was overjoyed when a jury came back with a “not guilty” to vehicular assault in Island County Superior Court in Washington. While she cried with joy, Judge Alan Hancock polled the jury only to have one woman say that she didn’t agree with the “not guilty” verdict. He sent the jury back to voted again. By the time they had returned, they had convicted Sylvester.
Continue reading “Twelve Ambivalent Men: Washington Jury Polled After Not Guilty Verdict Only To Be Sent Back and Then Reaches Guilty Verdict”
Category: Lawyering
In an attack both on free speech and the free press, Saudia Arabia has ordered a female journalist to be flogged 60 times for airing an interview with a man who bragged about his sex life. Rosanna Al-Yami was also given a two-year travel ban for her role in the episode of “A Thick Red Line,” a popular show on social taboos.
Continue reading “Saudi Journalist To Be Flogged for Airing Interview Involving Sexual Boasts”
The woman at the center of one of the most shocking rape cases of the last decade has recanted her story. Megan Williams has now admitted that she made up the story of being raped and abused in a trailer in West Virginia in 2007 that sent six people to prison. However, various leaders who protested the case at the time are now calling her a liar in her recantation.
Continue reading “Victim in Notorious Rape Case Recants Her Story”
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has been sent to jail to await his corruption trial next week. I am not sure which is worse, the jailing or the view of Judge Stephen Robinson of the defendant, who he described as “a toxic combination of self-minded focus and arrogance.” That is not a particularly promising start to a criminal trial.
Continue reading “Former New York Police Chief Bernard Kerik Jailed”
An unnamed Albertsons cashier has won an appeal in a disability case (and $200,000) where her store manager refused to allow her to take a bathroom break — leading to an embarrassing accident at the checkout counter. Once again, I wonder at the legal judgment in taking this case to adjudication and appeal.
Continue reading “Appeal in Aisle 3: Albertsons Loses Bathroom Break Case”
In light of our recent posting on the man arrested for making coffee in the nude in his own home, this case out of Grand Forks is interesting. Nicole Altendorf, 37, is accused of watching pornography in her own home but allowing the images and noises to be seen and heard from Lake Agassiz Elementary School.
Continue reading “North Dakota Woman Arrested For Broadcasting Porn Near School”
Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman is offering a defense in his criminal case that may strike some as more appropriate for the Marquis de Sade than an Alabama jurist. Accused of having inmates brought to his chamber for sex and spanking, Herman insists that he was trying to rehabilitate and educate the men.
Continue reading “The Marquis de Sade Defense: Former Judge Claims To Have Been Schooling Inmates Allegedly Raped and Spanked in His Chambers”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be morphing into George W. Bush. Faced with findings of a respected former war crimes prosecutor that Israel may have committed war crimes in its Gaza offensive, the prime minister instructed his government to seek changes to the international laws of war to retroactively justify any actions taken in Gaza.
Continue reading “Israel To Seek Change in Law of War to Block War Crimes Investigation”
Now, this is some pretty vicious litigation. Miss California USA officials want Carrie Prejean to give back the $5,200 that they say she borrowed to have her breasts augmented last year. Prejean is suing the pageant in a lawsuit that includes a privacy violation related to the disclosure of the augmentation.
Continue reading “Passing the Cups: California Pageant Seeks Reimbursement for Prejean’s Augmentation Surgery”
Former Contra Costa County sex crimes prosecutor Michael Gressett has been accused of a sex crime in the raping of a colleague. The California lawyer is free on bail after being indicted on the charges, which he denies through counsel. While Deputy District Attorney, Gressett has run three times for district attorney.
Continue reading “California Sex Crimes Prosecutor Accused of Raping Another Prosecutor”
Prosecutors in Minneapolis have a fascinating case involving assisted suicide and free speech. Nurse William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, is accused of using Internet chat rooms to convince people to commit suicide, giving them step-by-step instructions on how to kill themselves — preferably so he could watch. At least two people are believed to have fed Melchert-Dinkel’s fetish with their deaths: Nadia Kajouji, 18, and Mark Drybrough, 32 (shown here).
Continue reading “Suicidal Speech: Minnesota Case Raises Difficult Questions Over Assisted Suicide and Free Speech”
Today’s column on blasphemy laws may be too narrow. In San Francisco and London, activists are demanding that denigrating someone as fat should be treated as a hate crime like race, age, or faith. “Fatism” is already banned in San Franscisco in housing and workplaces.
Continue reading “Rights of the Rubenesque: London Considers Making Fatism a Form of Hate Speech”
In American politics there are few more polarizing figures than Al Sharpton and Rush Limbaugh. Now, in what will be a spasmodic moment of euphoria for many, Sharpton and Limbaugh may be going to court with the former suing the latter for defamation. Putting aside the sheer joy of the moment for many, the case could present some interesting questions over whether Limbaugh defamed Sharpton in a Wall Street Journal Op-ed.
Continue reading “Polar Attraction: Sharpton Threatens Limbaugh With Lawsuit”
Here is today’s column in USA Today on the Obama Administration’s decision to join the U.N. Human Rights Council and support Egypt in recognizing limits on free speech for those who insult or denigrate religion. While the exception was included in a resolution heralding free speech, it was viewed as a major victory for Muslim countries seeking to establish an international blasphemy law.
Continue reading “Just Say No To Blasphemy: U.S. Supports Egypt in Limiting Anti-Religious Speech”
Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana has become an infamous figure overnight after he refused to marry an interracial couple out of concern for their possible children. However, he helpfully explained “I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way.”
Continue reading “Louisiana Justice of the Peace Refuses to Marry Interracial Couples”