Halloween is the favorite holiday for all torts professors and personal injury lawyers. (Indeed, I am convinced it was invented by a personal injury lawyer). Common carrier hay rides, lighting vegetables on fire, handing out foodstuffs without a permit . . . It’s the most litigious day of the year. So, with no further ado, here is this year’s annual Spooky Torts and Crimes list of actual cases from Halloween. Happy Halloween everyone (except those avoiding the holiday due to demon-inspired soul-sucking candy or papal prohibitions).
Continue reading “HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! THE 2009 LIST OF SPOOKY TORTS AND SCARY CRIMES”
Dan Delong, an English teacher at Southwestern High School in Piasa, Illinois has been suspended for allegedly allowing students in his English classes to read an article about homosexuality in the animal kingdom. The article that Delong allegedly had his class read was published in a 2006 edition of “The Gay Animal Kingdom” and is available at http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_gay_animal_kingdom.
Continue reading “Illinois Teacher Suspended For Assigning an Article on Homosexuality in the Animal Kingdom”
While police officers are being fired for ticketing protected progeny in Stockton, Utah, teenagers are being arrested in American Fork, Utah for rapping at McDonald’s drive-through. They insist that they are innocent, but the police insist that it was indeed a bad rap, but a good collar.
Continue reading “Hold the Rap: Utah Police Charge Teens For Rapping a McDonald’s”
Officer Joshua Rowell in Stockton, Utah (population 443) has been reinstated this week after being fired by Mayor Dan Rydalch. It appears that Rowell had the audacity to ticket the mayor’s son and was fired on the spot by an anger father. He was out of a job until the Top Kopp — Police Chief Heinz Kopp — and others objected.
Continue reading “City Father: Utah Mayor Fires Officer For Giving Son Ticket”
The dangers of drunk Ewoks is a little known danger for costume parties. However, the Today Show became the unwitting focus of inebriated Ewoks, including Al Roker who appears have a claim for sexual assault.
Continue reading “The Trouble With Ewoks: Al Roker Assaulted on Today Show”
New York prosecutors are dealing with an attempted honor killing of a different sort. We have been following such cases on this blog, but Rabia Sarwar, 37, may be category unto herself after she allegedly slit her husband’s throat after he forced by her to eat pork, wear short skirts and drink alcohol slashed.
Continue reading “The Abused Devout Woman Defense? New York Muslim Woman Tries to Kill Husband For Forcing Her To Eat Pork and Wear Short Skirts”
A Montana jury has rendered a surprising verdict. The jury ruled against the manufacturer of the Louisville Slugger bat, Hillerich and Bradsby. Notably, the jury rejected design defect claims but found a warning defect in the death of 18-year-old Brandon Patch who was hit in the head with a ball hit by a aluminum bat.
Note to self: have kids skip the Vatican this Halloween. Pope Benedict XVI has joined Kimberly Daniels at the Christian Broadcasting Network in issuing his own warning against Christians participating in Halloween. The Pope wants Catholics to know that the holiday is dangerous to not just their waistline but their eternal souls.
With many of us preparing for Halloween on Saturday, we have a disturbing warning from Kimberly Daniels on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Web site: demons (real demons) have contaminated Halloween candy to invade the souls of our children (and presumably late-night candy stealing parents).
Continue reading “Christian Columnist Warns of Demon Conspiracy To Invade the Souls of Children Through The Candy”
In a potentially important ruling for detainees held by the United States, Illinois U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm rejected prosecution demands and sentenced Qatar native Ali al-Marri to just eight years in jail — with a possible release in less than six years. The reduction from 15 years was expressly tied to the abusive conditions and treatment of al-Marri by the United States while held as an enemy combatant in South Carolina.
Continue reading “Eight Years For Al-Marri: Sleeper Agent Given Low Sentence by Judge Outraged by Abuses of the United States”
Culinary crimes and misdemeanors are becoming the rage. In Illinois, it is Jamaican-Chicken that proved the undoing of a judge. In Wisconsin, the culprit is a Jack Daniels steak that trapped Ian Baker, 23, in his fourth drunk driving charge.
South Carolina appears to have finally moved beyond the Sanford affair. Deputy assistant attorney general Roland Corning, 66, has been fired after he was stopped in his SUV by police during his lunch break. The problem was that he was found with a stripper, Viagra, and sex toys in a cemetery.
Continue reading “Prosecutor Found in South Carolina Cemetery with Teenaged Stripper”
Associate Judge Robert Livas may be put on a vegan diet. The former prosecutor and former police officer is in hot water over a curious order that he placed for Jamaican-style chicken as part of a plea agreement with Darrius Logan. Logan, 24, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass charges and was sentenced to 100 hours community service. Then things got funky . . . Jamaican-chicken funky . . .
Continue reading “La Livas Loca: Judge Accepts Jerk Chicken in Lieu of Community Service”
With Bernie Madoff and other crooks, we have become used to Ponzi schemes. However, lawyer Kevin Cohen of Roslyn, New York is accused of a rather unique variation on this criminal theme: a baby Ponzi scheme.
Continue reading “Ponzi Pampers: Lawyer Accused of Pyramid Scheme Involving Adoptions”
I give you a cat in zero gravity.
Continue reading “Cats in Space”