Kentucky

New Rules say Government Contractors Must Disclose ?Credible Evidence? Of Fraud, Abuse - Failure to comply could result in disbarment for attorneys

Posted on December 18, 2008
  Dec. l8, 2008    Government, Inc. by Robert Harrow, Jr.   Starting today, all federal contractors on deals lasting four months or more and worth $5 million or more (including those outside the U.S. and those providing commercial items) must blow the whistle on criminal violations or overcharging...

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip J. Shepherd Denies Early-release Injunction

Posted on December 18, 2008
  Attorney General Jack Conway?s office suffered a setback in his attempt to end the Justice Cabinet?s attempt to cut prison populations by liberalizing early release procedures.  This issue is one of the first battles between ?conservatives? who seek to increase prison populations and ?moderates? who believe Kentucky must reduce its half billion dollar a year [...

Mark Hebert suggests potential nominees for U.S. Attorney positions

Posted on December 17, 2008
Mark Hebert reports that the following attorneys names are being bandied about as possible nominees for appointment as U.S. Attorney in an Obama Administration. Benham Sims: Former District Judge. David Kaplan: Chief of Staff for House Speaker Jody Richards...

Muslim woman jailed for refusing to remove head scarf in Georgia courthouse

Posted on December 17, 2008
ATLANTA (Dec. 17) - A Muslim woman was arrested for refusing to take off her head scarf at a courthouse security checkpoint said Wednesday that she felt her human and civil rights were violated.   A Georgia judge ordered Lisa Valentine, to serve 10 days in jail for refusing to take her head scarf off in court [...

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U.S. Supreme Court considers ban on depictions of animal cruelty

Posted on December 17, 2008
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17  – The U.S. Supreme Court will have the last word on a federal law that bans the sale of films or photographs that show animals being tortured. A federal appeals court ruled that the law was unconstitutional because it limited freedom of speech...

Gov. Beshear Announces E-Warrant Program a Success

Posted on December 17, 2008
 Dec. 17, 2008     FRANKFORT, Ky. ? An electronic, interlinked system that went online this year has revolutionized the way Kentucky law enforcement and criminal justice professionals access and serve warrants, summonses and other related documents, Gov...

KBA limits power of Bar President

Posted on December 17, 2008
  The president of the Kentucky Bar Association and the group’s ethics committee have settled an investigation over her removal of committee members in a deal that will put limits on her power.   The association’s Board of Governors found that Barbara Bonar, of Covington, inappropriately removed several members of the ethics committee in August before their terms [...

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth says Obama appointments of U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals may not be discussed until March

Posted on December 13, 2008
  Dec. 14, 2008   U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Louisville) said discussions with the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama regarding federal appointments within the states have been limited thus far, but they may kick up once Obama has been inaugurated...

REPORT OF THE GOV.?S CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM COMMITTEE

Posted on December 13, 2008
Secretary Michael Brown has submitted the 28 page report to Gov. Steve Beshear with reccomendations for reform of the Kentucky Criminal Justice system. This important report discusses numerous issues that should be adopted and also discusses issues which should be avoided...

Ace Criminal Defense Attorney Brenda Popplewell does it again with win based on hardwork and application of forensic science.

Posted on December 12, 2008
LawReader watches for outstanding lawyers in all fields.  One of the stars in criminal law practice is defense lawyer Brenda Popplwell from Somerset in Pulaski, County.  She recently won an appeal before the 6th. Circuit.  Today we report on another criminal trial victory...

Illinois Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald Blasted by Conservative Fox News ?Prosecutorial Misconduct?

Posted on December 12, 2008
  FOXNews.com    Dec. 12, 2008    - U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has a long history of being tough on crime, but critics say his overzealous pursuits sometimes cross the line.     Patrick Fitzgerald, the 47-year old Justice Department wunderkind, has taken on corrupt government, terrorists and the mob...

US Supreme Court: Federal law DOES NOT trump state laws on medical marijuana

Posted on December 12, 2008
December 11th, 2008 ·  by Steve Kubby, Director, The American Medical Marijuana Association  Last Monday, the US Supreme Court Monday quietly, but overwhelmingly destroyed the allegations by state law enforcement that, ?Federal law trumps state laws on medical marijuana...

U.S Supreme Court hears discrimination claim re: company who reduces retirement pay of women who took maternity leave..

Posted on December 10, 2008
Several Supreme Court justices questioned on Wednesday whether AT&T Corp. is discriminating against former employees by paying smaller retirement checks to women who took pregnancy leaves in the 1960s and 1970s.  The court heard arguments in the case of four women who lost seniority credit when they took maternity leave before passage of a 1979 law [...

Louisville District Court winner spent $303,000 on campaign

Posted on December 10, 2008
WHAS reporter Mark Hebert reports on his blog that:  ?New Jefferson District Judge Katie King lent her own campaign $194,000 in the two weeks immediately before and after the November election, according to her filings with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance...

U.S. Supreme Court hears Capital Case where Prosecution withheld Exculpatory evidence ? case causes Justice Stevens, to worry about ethics of the legal profession

Posted on December 10, 2008
Prosecutors Didn’t Turn Over Proof of Killer’s Drug Use   Washington Post - December 10, 2008 The Supreme Court’s oral arguments in Cone v. Bell yesterday began with exasperation, Justice Antonin Scalia incredulous that lawyers were at it again on behalf of a brutal murderer who the court twice has said could be put to death...

Arizona Courts improperly deny right to a jury trial

Posted on December 09, 2008
  East ValleyTribune Editorial   Phoenix, Arizona   - Nov. 8, 2008 The idea that anyone could be sentenced to even a day in jail without the opportunity to seek a jury’s opinion should be fundamentally offensive to a free society. Unfortunately, this situation continues to exist in Arizona, as the Arizona Court of Appeals again recently upheld a [...

Federal Judicial Salaries called Chump Change - Congress has prevented the judiciary from receiving cost of living adjustments six times since 1993

Posted on December 09, 2008
  John Pacenti  Daily Business Review December 09, 2008   Judge Peter T. Fay of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote four different speeches to give at the inaugural Biennial Southern District of Florida Bench and Bar Conference.   He scrapped them all to address the issue of judicial compensation and corruption in Congress...

Justice Clarence Thomas violation of Sup. Ct. tradition re: Obama?s eligibility rejected by full court - One other case still to be heard

Posted on December 09, 2008
The Supreme Court turned down an emergency appeal Monday from a New Jersey man who claimed that President-elect Barack Obama was not a “natural born citizen” and therefore was ineligible to become president. The setback is the latest for a small group of persistent litigants who want the courts to block Obama from taking office...

California facing $10 billion a year in prison costs, studying major reforms in theories of incarceration ? Federal Court case may force the issue -

Posted on December 07, 2008
  Federal judges weighing solutions to California’s prison overcrowding crisis   A sweeping order to release prisoners is one possible outcome; at issue is whether overcrowding is the cause of poor healthcare that violates their constitutional rights...

Were major tactical errors made by O.J.?s Blue Ribbon Defense Team?

Posted on December 06, 2008
  LawReader opines - Dec. 5, 2008   Yesterday, O.J. Simpson was sentenced to 33 years with a chance for parole in about nine years, but a prosecutor says the former football star could have spent less time behind bars if he had accepted a plea deal before he was convicted...

U.S. Supreme Court hears cases that may change Search & Seizure Rules ? Belton Rule re: search of vehicle incident to arrest and application of Good Faith Exception rule in false arrest

Posted on December 05, 2008
  Two cases argued before the United States Supreme Court a few weeks ago hold strong potential for shaking up the rules of search and seizure now applied thousands of times each day. After discussion of last year?s criminal procedures cases, participants in the IACP Legal Officers Section workshop turned their attention to upcoming decisions of [...

Fed. Judge orders State to Clear Murder Record of Eugene Gall

Posted on December 05, 2008
  Dec. 5, 2008   LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A federal judge has ordered the State of  Kentucky to expunge the record of Eugene William Gall. of  Hillsboro, Ohio.  Gall  was once on Death Row for killing a 12-year-old Cincinnati girl.   U.S. District Judge Danny C...

U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas breaks tradition and causes hearing on Obama?s Citizenship ? Action could delay Electoral College action to confirm the election of Obama.

Posted on December 03, 2008
Dec. 3, 2008 On Dec. 3rd. Justice Clarence Thomas issued an order which will require the full supreme court to hear a certiori claim filed by a New Jersey attorney, after the initial petition was rejected by Justice David Souter.   Thomas?s action is unusual as a rejection by one Justice of the Supreme Court traditional kills [...

U.S. Supreme Court to decide if federal laws may be used to challenge gender discrimination in education ? Title IX vs. Section 1983

Posted on December 03, 2008
    The U.S. Supreme Court is seeking to use a lawsuit over peer sexual harassment on a Massachusetts school bus to resolve an important legal issue about which federal laws are available to combat gender discrimination in education.   The question for the justices during much of the oral arguments today was whether they granted review of [...

Attorney General Conway Announces Regional DUI Training for Police & Prosecutors On Dec. 3rd.

Posted on December 02, 2008
  Dec. 1, 2008  Attorney General Jack Conway today announced that his office is training police officers and local prosecutors about how to effectively prosecute Driving Under the Influence (DUI) cases at a regional seminar in Lexington, Ky. on Wednesday, December 3 through Friday, December 5 at the Hilton Suites Lexington Green, 245 Lexington Green Circle ...

Atheists sue Kentucky over Homeland Security Plaques citing God.

Posted on December 02, 2008
Dec. 2, 2008 - Edwin Kagin, a Boone County lawyer and the national legal director of American Atheists has filed a lawsuit for a atheists-rights group suing the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security because state law requires the agency to stress  a reliance on God and to install a plaque referencing a religious justification for [...

Mark Hebert of WHAS TV names Ct. of Appeals Judge Jeff Taylor as serial ethics complaint filer

Posted on November 30, 2008
Hebert reported on his blog: ?A Kentucky Court of Appeals judge is apparently behind both of the recent complaints filed against democratic state lawmakers Joey Pendleton and Tom Burch.  According to sources familiar with the case, Jeffrey Taylor of Owensboro was the appelate judge who filed the complaint with the Legislative Branch Ethics Commission, alleging Rep...

Kentucky Court of Appeals Releases 20 decisions this week

Posted on November 29, 2008
LawReader Subscribers can read keywords, synopsis and full text by going to  COURT OF APPEALS DECISIONS FOR NOV. 28, 2008      Non-subscribers can sign up at: SIGN UP - PRICING for Lawreader Important topics discussed this week:   Child custody procedures-statutory findings of best interests ? paternity - CIVIL ARSON CASE ? EVIDENCE OF INSURANCE - RELEASE AND RECORDING OF [...

Tests of the Intoxilyzer DUI Breath Test machine yields troubling results

Posted on November 28, 2008
  Nov. 28, 2008   Based on a Cincinnati Enquirer article Ohio State officials plan to supply police agencies with the Intoxilyzer 8000, replacing the mishmash of different models of breath-test machines now used in Ohio and to centralize maintenance and record-keeping...

Ky. Supreme Court issues 39 opinions. Nineteen to be published.

Posted on November 27, 2008
Ky. Supreme Court issues 39 opinions. Nineteen to be published.    LawReader subscribers can read the keywords, full synopsis and full text of each case by going to KY. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS FOR NOVEMBER 2008 . nON MEMBERS MAY SIGN UP ONLINE AT SIGN UP - PRICING for lawreader   Nine KBA discipline rulings...

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