Grant County in Washington has settled an exceptionally disturbing case involving false allegations of child abuse, allegedly ineffective representation by a public defender (later disbarred), and the holding of an innocent man for seven months after allegations were disproved. The $250,000 with Felipe Vargas seems quite modest given the abuse that he encountered in Grant County, which seems to maintain a criminal justice system on a model from the Thirteenth Century.
If researchers are looking for evidence of nature over nurture to rebut Skinner, they need to look no further than the father and son team of Edward R. Pluhar Sr., 61, and Edward R. Pluhar Jr. 26. Junior reportedly did not want to wait in line at Wal-Mart in Muncie, Delaware, so he went to the front of the line. When a guy objected, he and his father became abusive and threatened him. It turned out to be off-duty police officer Chris Kirby. The confrontation would end up in the parking lot with Kirby injured by the Pluhar’s van and the Pluhars ultimately in the Delaware County Jail.
Continue reading “Big Box; Small Brain: Father and Son Arrested For Allegedly Butting in Line — and Then Assaulting an Officer”
Iran has continued its medieval legal practice with two additional stonings. It was supposed to be three stonings, but one of the men named Mahmoud accused of adultery was able to dig himself out of the hole and run free. The stonings occurred in the city of Mashhad in late December.
Continue reading “Two Men Stoned to Death and One Escapes After Iranian Sentence of Adultery”
Tim Kay is close to becoming a legal system unto himself. In the town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, Tim Kay defended Robert John “R.J.” Manders, a businessman, on his third drunken-driving conviction. One week later, he was prosecuting Manders for trespass. That’s right, Kay is both a defense counsel and prosecutor in the town.
The world has another honor killing. This time the family of Naile Erdas, 16, decided that the family honor demanded that she be killed after she was raped and impregnated. This case, however, has a positive element: a Turkish court has handed down an appropriately harsh series of sentences of the father, mother, brother and two uncles. It is a great credit to the Turkish legal system and should be a model for other Islamic countries in the region.
Continue reading “Sixteen-Year-Old Pregnant Rape Victim Murdered by Family in Honor Killing”
Students at Tioga High School in Groveland, California should receive extra credit for civics. The Big Oak Flat-Groveland School Board fired Math teacher Ryan Dutton for alleged plagiarism while a student teacher at Cal State Fresno. The University says the allegations were unfounded but the school board refused to reconsider its decision, so the students organized a recall campaign and tossed out the entire school board.
Continue reading “School Board Fires Popular Math Teacher; Students Fire School Board”
Police in Greenfield, California are dealing with a considerable cultural disconnect. Macelino de Jesus Martinez, 36, was arrested after he arranged for a marriage of his daughter, 14, into a marriage for beer and cash. When his son-in-law, Margarito de Jesus Galindo, 18, stopped paying, he went to police to try to get his daughter back. Both are reportedly illegal immigrants from Mexico and now face criminal charges and possible deportation.
For those who insist that the American jury system is simply pro-plaintiff, you need to look at the case of Lisa Strong, 44. The mother of two went to a hospital for kidney stones and ended up losing both her arms and legs. A jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida rule in favor the defendant doctors and South Broward Hospital District across the board.
President-elect Barack Obama appears to be signaling that he is not inclined to investigate crimes committed by the Bush Administration. In an interview with ABC News program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos”, he picked up on the recent Democratic spin that we should all “look to the future and not the past” even if the past happens to contain war crimes committed by his predecessor. I just finished an interview on Talk of the Nation on which I debated the issue with Harvard Professor and former solicitor general Charles Fried. I also discussed the issue on MSNBC Countdown.
Continue reading “Obama Indicates That He Will Not Investigate Bush Crimes”
Keeping with the developing matrimonial theme this morning, an odd case has emerged from New York involving personal injury lawyer Joseph Rosenzweig, who has been blocked by a court from foreclosing on a loan to his wife, Radiah Givens, due to bigamy. Justice Karla Moskowitz has ruled that there is a possible argument that the money was a gift.
Continue reading “New York Lawyer Accused of Bigamy and Blocked From Evicting Ex-Wife”
There is an interesting ruling in a divorce case out of Miami, Florida this week. Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda has developed a certain fame or infamy by first declaring himself to be Jesus Christ and then proclaiming that he is the Antichrist. Dividing up the assets of the Antichrist would seem a daunting prospect, but Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Roberto Pineiro ruled that it is simple: the church is so closely linked to de Jesus that it should be included in the division of his personal property for the purposes of the divorce.
Continue reading “De Jesus: Court Divides Assets of the AntiChrist in Divorce”
Stephen Buttafuoco, 23, is the subject of a rather curious criminal charge. He was a waiter at a wedding at the Woodbury Jewish Center when the guests suddenly began to hear an Arabic chant praising Allah. Buttafuoco, who aptly lives in West Babylon, New York, insists that he was playing a recording for a friend and did not realize that it was being amplified to the room. He was charged with felony harassment.
Continue reading “New York Waiter Charged Criminally For Playing Arabic Chant at Jewish Wedding”
Authorities have discovered the body of a Somali pirate who drowned after receiving his share of a ransom to release a Saudi oil tanker. His is one of five pirates who reportedly drowned after leaving the boat when $3 million was dropped by parachute on to the vessel
Continue reading “Liquid Assets: Body of Drowned Somali Pirate Washes Onshore with $153,000 in Ransom Money”
Former church director of finances, William Jeremiah, has been arrested for theft and fraud after $276,000 went missing from the Lakeview Wesleyan Church in Marion, Indiana. Prosecutors allege that some of the money went for a church-subsidized vasectomy.
A Billing. Montana bus driver took her kids on an unscheduled field trip when she stopped at a liquor school to load up and then asked a student to help hide a bottle when the cops stopped the bus.