Legal Commentary

Officers Friendly: Five Officers Reassigned After Posing for Racey Pictures with Women

Posted on November 28, 2008
Five San Antonio officers have been reassigned over racey pictures taken with young women and placed on a MySpace page. The photos, linked below, showed women in suggestive poses. The officers face punishment ranging from a reprimand to a three-day suspension...

OMG: The Vatican Warns that Text-Messaging and Cell Phones May Be Hazardous to Your Ever-Lasting Soul

Posted on November 28, 2008
The Vatican has warned that omodern technology, such as the internet and mobile phones, could be leading people from salvation. That IPhone may be networking with the Devil by reducing your spiritual advancement regardless of how many time you invoke the almighty in OMG text messages...

Smell of Victory: Detriot Court Rules in Favor of Disability Claim Based on Sensitivity to Perfume

Posted on November 28, 2008
U.S. District Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff has ruled that a lawsuit by Susan McBride, a Detroit planner, can go to trial on allegations that a co-worker’s perfume made it difficult to breathe and work. The claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act could produce a major new precedent for people claiming chemical sensitivity in [...

Video: Las Vegas Attorney Shows Up Drunk in Court and Causes Mistrial in Kidnapping Case

Posted on November 28, 2008
Attorney Joe Caramagno has become an Internet sensation after showing up drunk in court (two hours late) and trying to convince the judge in the video below that he can still try the case and “play injured.” Caramagno claimed to have a concussion from an accident despite reports that he smelled of tequila...

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Iranian Court Orders Acid Dropped in the Eyes of Defendant

Posted on November 28, 2008
Iranian justice reached a new low this week with a Sharia court ordering that acid be dropped in the eyes of a man who blinded a woman for spurning his marriage proposals. The man only identified as Majid will be blinded under a system of “qisas” or fair retribution in the medieval system...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!

Posted on November 27, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and thank you for making this blog such a success — and so much fun. We had over a million hits in the first year and continue to grow each month. I hope that you have a litigation free holiday. In celebration, I give you the annual Turkey [...

Before Attorney General Mukasey?s Collapse, a Judge Stood Up and Called Him a Tyrant

Posted on November 27, 2008
What has not been reported in the recent collapse of Attorney General Michael Mukasey is that just before he fainted, Washington State Supreme Court Judge Richard Sanders stood up and called him a tyrant. When Mukasey began his routine defense of Bush policies over the treatment of detainees, Judge Sanders apparently could not take it [...

Police Taser 54-Year-Old Woman Sitting in Wrong Seat at Football Game

Posted on November 27, 2008
Those Badgers fans can be stubborn. Margaret Hiebing went to a Madison football game to watch the Badgers and found another person sitting in her seat so she sat in someone else seat. She would end up tasered and in a wheelchair. Wisconsin was playing Penn State and the stadium was packed...

Florida Man Charged Criminally After Ignoring Police Order and Trying to Save Pets from Fire

Posted on November 27, 2008
Police in Zephryhills, Florida have charged Henry Ben Morgan with a felony for obstructing the extinguishment of a fire plus a misdemeanor for resisting arrest when he attempted to run into his burning home to save his pets and put the fire out. The pets perished, his house burned down, and he is now [...

Not OK: Prosecutors Seek To Jail Korean Actress for Adultery

Posted on November 27, 2008
South Korean prosecutors this week in South Korea are demanding jail time for Actress Ok So-ri for the crime of adultery. They are seeking a year and a half in prison for an affair under the country’s anti-adultery law. The maximum under the law is two years...

Soccer Mom Successfully Sues to Carry Gun on Open Holster to School Games

Posted on November 26, 2008
Meleanie Hain is not a soccer Mom to be trifled with in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Other parents were a bit perturbed when she showed up to guns wearing a holstered pistol to watch her 5-year-old play. She successfully filed Second Amendment challenge after her concealed-weapons permit was revoked by the sheriff...

California Kindergarten Students Told Not to Dress Up for Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2008
Parents at Condit Elementary School in Claremont, California have forced the kindergarten to bar children from dressing in traditional Thanksgiving outfits as based on racial or ethic stereotypes. After 40 years of this tradition, no one Pilgrim hats, Indian outfits, or bonnets...

The Indestructible Ticket: Police Officer Issues Duplicate Ticket to Driver After Court Dismisses Original Ticket

Posted on November 26, 2008
Police in Mamaroneck, New York may need a refresher on basic legal process principles. After Mayor Kathleen Savolt won in court in having a traffic ticket dismissed, Officer Michael Petrillo showed up at her house that night and issued her a new duplicate ticket...

Lori Drew Convicted of Three Lesser Counts; Spared Felony Conviction

Posted on November 26, 2008
A Los Angeles jury made it a Happy Thanksgiving for Lori Drew this week by rejected a felony conviction and only convicting the Missouri mother of three minor misdemeanors in the case involving the suicide death of Megan Meier. The jury rejected felony charges of accessing a computer without authorization to inflict emotional distress on Meier...

Florida Court Strikes Down State Ban on Gay Adoptive Parents

Posted on November 26, 2008
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman has struck down Florida’s ban on the adoption of children by gay people. She found that the law was unconstitutional given the absence of any legal or scientific reason that sexual orientation should be the basis for such a prohibition...

Man Arrested for Releasing Hundreds of Worms in Effort to Scare Women on Train

Posted on November 25, 2008
In Osaka, Japan, Manabu Mizuta, 35, repeatedly released hundreds of beetle larvae near woman on trains to scare them. He stated “I wanted to see women get scared and shake their legs.” It makes for an interesting case of the definition of assault...

Wasted Talent: Sopranos Star Lillo Brancato Stands Trial for Murder

Posted on November 25, 2008
The murder trial of Lillo Brancato seems like life following fiction for the actor from the Sopranos and The Bronx Tale. Brancato, 32, is accused of killing an off-duty police officer, Daniel Enchautegui, who came upon him and his drug dealer friend, Steven Armento, breaking into an apartment...

Connecticut Judge Arrested for Drunk Driving After Hitting Police Cruiser and Hurling Racial Epithets at Black Officer

Posted on November 25, 2008
Connecticut Judge E. Curtissa R. Cofield is at the center of a firestorm after an arrest for drunk driving during which she hurled racial epithets at a black police officer. She also succeeded in striking a police cruiser with her BMW. Cofield, who is also black, is now the subject of both a [...

Bad Rap: Rapper Convicted After Song Incriminates Him in a 2006 Shooting

Posted on November 25, 2008
Rico Todriquez Wright, 25, was delighted with the popularity of his latest rap song, “Hitting Licks for a Living.” However, one person noticed one line from the song: Living? and there?s a line that says ?Chad Blue knows how I shoot?.? Licks is slang for a robbery and Chad Blue was shot in 2006 [...

Bush Pardons Man Who Killed Three Bald Eagles

Posted on November 25, 2008
The symbolism is perfectly exquisite. President George Bush, who has given out fewer pardons than any modern president, felt that he could not leave office without releasing Leslie Owen Collier of Charleston, Mo., who pleaded guilty in 1995 to unlawfully killing three bald eagles in southeast Missouri...

Thank You Sarah Palin

Posted on November 24, 2008
The campaign may be weeks over but the ads for Sarah Palin are about to begin again. A new political action committee has formed and is running the “Thank You Sarah Palin” ad below praising Sarah Palin and thanking her for being her. The ads are designed with a Thanksgiving theme...

?Do You Really Want to Hurt Me??: Boy George Stands Trial for False Imprisonment

Posted on November 24, 2008
False imprisonment cases are relatively rare but Boy George is standing trial in England for the false imprisonment of a male escort. In addition to the crime of false imprisonment, it is possible for Norwegian escort Audun Carlsen, 23, to sue civilly...

Report: Vicks Personally Hanged and Drowned Dogs

Posted on November 24, 2008
Just when you thought that football star Michael Vick’s reputation could not get any worse than after his conviction for dog fighting, it does. A new report states that Vick personally killed at least seven of his fighting dogs by hanging or drowning...

Happy Meal ? Hold the Consortium: Arkansas Man Sues McDonalds Over Disclosure of Wife?s Nude Photographs

Posted on November 24, 2008
Phillip Sherman has a super-sized problem. He went to a Fayetteville, Arkansas restaurant and left his cell phone on the table with nude pictures of his wife. While he said the store promised to hold the phone for him, the pictures and embarrassing information appears on the Internet...

I Write the Sentence: Judge Sentences Noise Violators to Listen to Barry Manilow

Posted on November 24, 2008
In what may be the first acoustic Eighth Amendment violation for cruel and unusual punishment, Fort Lupton Municipal Judge Paul Sacco has sentenced noise violators to listen to music that they do not like. I can barely stand hearing I Write the Songs once a year in an elevator...

Woman Sues Radio Station for ?Win-a-Date? With a Rapist

Posted on November 24, 2008
Waukegan radio station WXLC is being sued after having women compete to go on a date with a “great guy” Travis Harvey, 46. The radio station did not mention that Harvey had been convicted of violating an order for protection. He has now pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the “winner” in the [...

New Chinese Music Standard: All Beat and No Lyrics

Posted on November 24, 2008
The Chinese regime is perfectly happy with sex, guns, and rock ‘n roll. However, it has banned the latest Guns N’ Roses album for one word that is strictly forbidden for Chinese consumers to contemplate, let alone dance to: democracy. The Chinese have banned the new album, “Chinese Democracy” for its offensive [...

North Carolina Church Demands Sikh Remove Turban Before Donating to the Poor

Posted on November 23, 2008
Gary Khera, went with his wife to the Union Mission in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina to give money to charity. The church, however, told him to take off his religious turban while inside the mission — Sir, you have to take your turban off. This is the United States...

Quadruple Amputee Sues Brooklyn Hospital Center for Malpractice Leading to Loss of All Limbs

Posted on November 23, 2008
Tabitha Mullings is suing Brooklyn Hospital Center after a “medical mistake” allegedly led to the loss of all of her limbs during a visit over a simple kidney stone. Mullings was sent home with painkillers, leaving an infection untreated due to the failure to have a blood test performed...

Staying Fat With Fatwas: Muslim Clerics Embrace Inflexibility in Ban on Yoga

Posted on November 23, 2008
Malaysia’s top Islamic body has banned Muslims from practicing yoga, saying that yoga can corrupt Muslims and introduce them to elements of Hinduism. The decision was made by the National Fatwa Council, which says that yoga is based on elements of Hindu worship and chanting...

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