Carmen Ortiz, the US Attorney in Massachusetts, appears to be feeling some of the heat of the global anger over her prosecution of Aaron Swartz — an unrelenting prosecution that many (including the family) blame for his suicide. Ortiz is attempting to portray this abusive and unnecessary prosecution as prosecutors merely enforcing the law in compliance with their oath. They were, according to Ortiz, something akin to a legal version of Inspector Javert — committed to the enforcement of the federal law without discretion or judgment. Ortiz, who had remained silent, appears to have accepted that the case is presenting a serious problem for her and begins with a statement of sympathy that was entirely absent in the treatment of Swartz by her office and Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Heymann who has been linked to another suicide of a defendant.
I have previously written about the trend in our schools to use arrests as substitutes for school discipline for students. A new report highlights this trend and leaves a particularly shocking account of the situation in the Mississippi school system which remains 50th on teacher salaries but leads the nation in putting its students in jail.
Continue reading “Mississippi’s Policy of Matriculation Through Incarceration”
It reads like Breaking Bad meets The Bells of St. Mary’s meets La Cage aux Folles. Monsignor Kevin Wallin was arrested for allegedly dealing crystal meth at Bridgeport’s St. Augustine Cathedral. Also coming out were allegations that Wallin was was a cross-dresser who was having sex in the rectory at Bridgeport’s St. Augustine Cathedral.
Continue reading “Msgr. Meth: Priest Arrested After Dealing Crystal Meth From Catholic Cathedral”
Municipal court judge Lee Johnson in Ennis, Texas, is the latest public official to rush to Facebook like a teenager on a tear. Johnson breathlessly reported that a “certain unnamed (very) recent Heisman Trophy winner” had been ticketed in his jurisdiction — an obvious reference to Texas A&M quarterback and Heisman winner Johnny Manziel. Johnson then wrote “I meant to say ‘allegedly’ speeding, my bad.” It was striking that Johnson thought the problem was not saying allegedly as opposed to his turning into some form of judicial paparazzi.
Today, the federal court in Salt Lake City will hear final arguments in the Sister Wives case. The hearing on the motions (here and here) for summary judgment will be heard on Thursday, January 17th at the federal courthouse in Room 102 at 3:30 pm before Judge Clark Waddoups. Previously the court ruled against two efforts by the state to dismiss the case. The Brown family has challenged Utah Code Ann. § 76-7-101 (West 2010) under seven constitutional claims, including due process, equal protection, free speech, free association, free exercise, the establishment of religion, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Notre Dame’s athletic director Jack Swarbrick has given a tearful account of how he has determined that his football star Manti Te’o was a victim of being “catfishes” in mourning the death of a girlfriend who never in fact existed. I must confess an insurmountable level of skepticism regarding Te’o’s account, but I am more concerned not with his veracity (which seem entirely gone) but with the ethics of Notre Dame. Even without considering the Catholic values of the university, the response of the University to this matter is predictable and depressing given the known facts. We have previously discussed how football programs warp the academic mission and ethics of universities. This appears to be a towering example of the corrosive effect of such programs. Notre Dame admitted that it was made aware of the hoax but said nothing as reporters gushed over the bravery of Te’o in facing the death of the “love of his life.” Yet, the university insists that it had no obligation to tell the truth during the season while Te’o was being considered for the Heisman Trophy. Moreover, it concluded that Te’o had no ethical obligation to come forward immediately with the truth — even if we accept that he did not know that the “love of his life” did not exist.
We previously discussed the tort action filed by John Coomer against the Kansas City Royals and its mascot Sluggerrr after he was hit in the eye by a hot dog thrown into the crowd. Coomer suffered a detached retina and other injures. A jury ruled against him in favor of their popular mascot in a verdict that I previously questioned since it seems to be clearly negligent to fire these projectiles into the crowd. It appears that the Missouri appellate court agrees and reversed the verdict. The case is Coomer v. Kansas City Royals, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 46.
When responding to a fire, most firefighters would not expect a small avalanche as a peril though it is hard to see how the danger was not obvious for this firefighter. Nevertheless, he went to rescue people in the fire and his colleagues ultimately rescued a child. The firefighter is thankfully doing well and was close to falling four stories after the hit.
Continue reading “Russian Firefighter Survives Close Call After Being Hit By Snow In Fire”
There is an interesting case out of San Antonio where a car owner shot and killed one alleged car thief and wounded another outside of a home of a friend. What is interesting is that response of the police that, since he was defending property, he was in the right.
Continue reading “Texas Man Cleared Of Wrongdoing In Killing One Car Thief And Wounding Another”
We already have a distressingly long list of cases of police officers allegedly shooting dog pets either in mistaken raids or without provocation. We can now add the case of Jeff Fisher and his dog Ziggy in Colorado. Fisher says that deputies shot and killed Ziggy after they went to his house by mistake. Now it appears, according to local accounts, that the Adams County deputy sheriff, Wilfred A. Europe III, who shot the dog was involved in a previous fatal shooting.
Continue reading “Colorado Police Officer Shoots Dog After Going To Wrong House”
On Thursday, the federal court in Salt Lake City is set to hear final arguments in the Sister Wives case. The hearing on the motions for summary judgment will be heard on Thursday, January 17th at the federal courthouse in Room 102 before Judge Clark Waddoups. The Brown family has challenged Utah Code Ann. § 76-7-101 (West 2010) under seven constitutional claims, including due process, equal protection, free speech, free association, free exercise, the establishment of religion, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. As lead counsel, I am limited in what I can say about the case publicly beyond the statement below.
Continue reading “Federal Court Set To Hear Final Arguments In Sister Wives Case”
We have another large settlement involving the Chicago Police Department this year. The Chicago police will pay $22.5 million to compensate a mentally-ill California woman who was released by police into a high-crime area where she was kidnapped and raped before she fell from the seventh floor of a public housing apartment building. Christina Eilman, 27, survived and will be given the largest settlement in Chicago’s history (the prior record was $18 million).
There is something about the statement “move closer to the rhino” that should give most everyone pause. What is bizarre in a case out of South Africa is that the highly suspect suggestion came from a game keeper who was taking pictures of a couple from Johannesburg. You guessed it. The picture was the last record of the couple shortly before the rhino attacked Chantal Beyer, a 24-year-old woman.
Continue reading ““Move Closer To the Rhino” And Other Telltale Signs Of A Tort In Progress”
Michael L. Selleneit, 54, appears to have decided that his defense to shooting a neighbor was not particularly promising. After Selleneit shot Tony Pierce, 41, who lived in a nearby trailer, he claimed to have acted in defense of his wife who was being “telepathically” raped by Pierce.
We previously discussed how the Justice Department hounded Aaron Swartz in a prosecution that sought 35 years in prison for his effort to make academic papers available to the public — even though MIT did not ask for such charges and later released the papers free of charge to the public. United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and the Obama Administration were long criticized for the prosecution but remained committed to destroying Swartz — a move that clearly delighted copyright hawks that have tremendous influence over the Administration as discussed earlier. Given the high-profile nature of the case and the months of criticism, it is clear that Main Justice in Washington had to be monitoring the case. Now it appears that Swartz’s line prosecutor, Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Heymann was connected to a prior suicide of a defendant in a similar case. In 2008, Jonathan James killed himself while being pursued by Heymann in a criminal hacker case. Heymann then moved on to Swartz who also killed himself — complaining of the abusive treatment by the Justice Department. It is worth noting that the Justice Department could not come up with a single charge for anyone associated with the torture program, including the attorneys who facilitated the program. However, it wanted 35 years for a man accused of illegally gaining access to a university site and downloading academic papers to make available to the public for free. Those documents later released for free to the public but the Obama Administration still felt jail time was essential in the interests of justice.
Continue reading “Prosecutor of Aaron Swartz Linked To Another Suicide Of Defendant”