Mexico is fixated on an extraordinary murder case involving psychologist María Alejandra Lafuente Caso, 40. Lafuente Caso is accused of drugging, murdering, and chopping up the body of her husband Allan Carrera Cuellar, 41. She has claimed spousal abuse as a defense.
Meet Genard Trey Dupree, 27, and Tarus Bernard Scott, 30. These two men are accused of not just stealing almost $400 worth of items from a Wal-Mart in Lake Wales, Florida but using a fake heart attack to distract customers. I am not sure what is more depressing, these two thieves preying on decent people who want to help a stricken man or the fact that very few people actually stopped in the video below. The men stole a motorized Barbie Power Wheels, a Barbie vacation house, and a LeapFrog tablet
Police are looking for these two women who used the stolen credit cards of another woman to rack up more than $8,500 in gift cards in eight minutes in Rockville, Maryland. The women casually went into a Target store and allegedly spent thousands before strolling out of the store. However, this time the police say that they have very good pictures of the culprits.
Below is my column that ran today in the USA Today. It ran earlier on the web and this is a slightly expanded version of the piece on the spat of apologies around the country.
Continue reading “Collegia Apologia: Academic Apologies Abound In The Aftermath Of Ferguson”
Missouri Republican Floor Leader Rick Brattin has introduced a bill that would allow a man to stop a woman from getting an abortion by withholding written permission. Brattin is under fire not only over the bill but his description of the condition of confirmation of a “legitimate rape” to secure and exception under the law — a decryption that reminded many of the controversy over the use of the same term by former Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.).
Continue reading “Missouri Legislation Would Require Women To Get Consent Of Man For An Abortion”
Mark Oberholtzer, owner of Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, has suddenly found his business advertised internationally. However, it is not quite the exposure that he was hoping for. A recent picture of the Islamic extremist brigade Ansar al-Deen Front in Syria shows their fighters firing an anti-aircraft gun mounted on a truck proudly displaying his name and logo. Can anyone say “misappropriation of name or likeness”? My expectations is that a tort lawsuit is not troubling these extremists as a priority concern.
There is an interesting study out on obesity in America. The study of American Journal of Preventive Medicine appears to confirm one stereotype: police officers and donuts. Almost half of police (as well as firefighters and security guards) were found to be obese. The second most obese? Clergy (as well as social workers and counsellors) at 35.6 percent. If appears that, even you cannot avoid crime or sin, you may at least be able to out run the immediate consequences.
Continue reading “Weighty Professions: Police and Priests Top Study Of Most Obese Professions”
I have long argued in my column as well as numerous blog postings that our country is legally bound to prosecute people responsible for ordering torture during the Bush Administration. There is no question that water boarding is torture as recognized by President Obama, Attorney General Holder, the United Nations and virtually every expert in this field. However, while you may want to try to rewrite legal precedent (as did John Yoo and Jay Bybee in their infamous Torture Memos), you should not try to rewrite history. That is what former Vice President Dick Cheney appears to be doing this month. He told Chuck Todd on Sunday that we never prosecuted anyone for water boarding — an assertion that I and others have repeatedly raised over the years. The statement is simply false and adds historical revisionism to legal revisionism in our sordid foray into torture.
Continue reading “Cheney Offers Tortured View of History In Defending Waterboarding”
There are continuing rumblings in the media about the threat of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) lawyer David Boies over media sites using material hacked from the studio, including embarrassing emails where executives dish on leading stars like Angelina Jolie and the disclosure of contract information. Boies has warned that such material must be ignored or destroyed and suggested legal repercussions in the use of “stolen information.” But how serious is this threat? In my view, not very.
Continue reading “Is The Threat of David Boies To Media Over Use Of Hacked Documents Real?”
There is an interesting story out of London where banker Jonathan Burrows has been banned from working in the financial services industry. Another cases of fudged books or fraudulent earnings reports? No, Burrows was nabbed skipping the full fare on his commutes to work from Stonegate to London — paying roughly 7 pounds instead of 21 pounds for the daily trips.
Continue reading “London Banker Loses Job And Is Banned From Working In Industry Because . . .”
Many of us watching the Patriots-Packers game so Tom Brady throwing a fit on the sideline after a bad play. He clearly was saying “f–k” over and over again but there was no audio. Those silent F-bombs however are now the basis for a series of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission from people who said that they, even if they could not hear what he said, they knew what he said and were left shocked and angry. It creates an interesting basis for a FCC: the silent F-Bomb. It is almost a Zen-like Administrative Law question: Little Grasshopper, if a silent F-bomb explodes on a sidelines and no one is around to hear it, did it make a legal sound?
Continue reading “The Brady Bunch: Tom Brady Accused Of FCC Violation For Silent F-Bombs”
As I watched the Bears ground into a fine dust by the New Orleans Saints last night, I felt that long-standing sick sensation that has been around all season in watching Jay Cutler — our $127 million franchise quarterback — continue to blow little things like foot work, telegraphing throws, and waiting too long in the pocket. It then occurred to me. I was not watching another crushing defeat but a towering victory. As an attorney, I was watching the ultimate triumph of a fellow lawyer: Cutler’s agent Bus Cook who sold the Bears on $54 million guaranteed contract for a quarterback who has literally never had a true winning season from Vanderbilt to Denver to Chicago (he was as some have noted good for a 10-5 season that fell short of the playoffs). I was watching the work of a genius and I felt a tad better. For the rest of the season, I intend to cheer for Bus — the Monster of the Midwest.
The families of nine of the 26 people killed two years ago at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut have filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer, distributor and seller of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle used in the shooting. The lawsuit names Bushmaster, Camfour, a firearm distributor, and Riverview Gun Sales, the East Windsor store where Adam Lanza’s mother purchased the Bushmaster rifle in 2010. The plaintiffs include Sherlach and the families of Vicki Soto, Dylan Hockley, Noah Pozner, Lauren Rousseau, Benjamin Wheeler, Jesse Lewis, Daniel Barden, Rachel D’Avino and teacher Natalie Hammond (who was injured in the shooting). Despite great sympathy for these families and this teacher, the lawsuit has little merit in my view in seeking liability against the sale of a lawful weapon.
The news continues to grow worse over global warming. The Peru meeting revealed new research showing that time is running out for humanity to act on climate change. Now to new reports indicate that we may have underestimate the rate of loss on the huge ice sheet of West Antarctica — new calculations under global warming could mean a rise in global sea levels of as much as 23 feet. That would create massive changes in the coasts of the world.
Midamar Corp. and directors Jalel and Bill Aossey have been criminally charged in Cedar Rapids for allegedly falsely marking $4.9 million worth of meat as meeting strict halal standards and selling the noncompliant meat to millions of Muslims worldwide in Malaysia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and other countries. Also indicated is Islamic Services of America, an organization approved by Malaysia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE to certify beef for import under Islamic standards. They are facing 91 other counts for allegedly making false statements on export certificates, wire fraud and money laundering. The case could raise an interesting free exercise question.