Legal Commentary

Former Pennsylvania Judge Michael Joyce Faces Criminal Fraud Trial

Posted on October 17, 2008
The trial of former Superior Court Judge, Michael T. Joyce, on criminal fraud is now set but will be held in Pittsburgh in a venue change. The case, involving claims of false insurance claims, presents an interesting intersection between torts and criminal law — as well as judicial ethics...

Florida Man Sues Strip Club for Negligent Pole Dance

Posted on October 17, 2008
In appears that strippers are appealing in courts around the country this week and not just in the federal Denver courthouse. In Fort Lauderdale, Charles Privette, 35, has filed a tort action against a strip joint called the Booby Trap after a stripper’s high heel flew off during a pole dance and hit him [...

Monkey Business: California Man Stages Mexican Picture to Hide Marmoset

Posted on October 17, 2008
David Grigorian really loves his marmoset monkey. In January, Grigorian was arrested for shouting criminal threats in front of a house — a practice common among marmoset monkeys but less tolerated in Van Nuys, California. They soon found that he had a monkey named Cheeta but no monkey permit (yes, there appears to [...

Bad Times at the Bada Bing: Chief Judge Nottingham Accused of Trying to Get a Prostitute From the Bada Bing to Lie

Posted on October 17, 2008
Details have emerged of the expanding scandal that may have compelled Chief Judge Edward Nottingham to resign. A prostitute from the Bada Bing Club in Denver has reportedly given evidence that Nottingham was not only a regular customer but asked her to lie to cover up their relationship...

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A Huntin? We Will Go: AIG Throws Itself a Hunting Party After the Public Bailout

Posted on October 16, 2008
American Insurance Group executives have been ridiculed for spending $440,000 for entertaining themselves at a spa only days after receiving $85 billion in a public bailout. It appears that they have gotten the message. They went hunting partridges instead in England at a cost of $86,000...

Chief Judge Edward Nottingham To Resign Amid Scandal

Posted on October 16, 2008
According to the Rocky Mountain News, Chief Judge Edward Nottingham has decided to resign after months of scandal and judicial complaints. Nottingham has been a perpetual machine of controversy. In 2007, his ex-wife revealed in divorce proceedings that he spent $3,000 in just two days on strippers...

Joe Biden?s ?Three Letter Word?: J-O-B-S

Posted on October 16, 2008
Senator Joe Biden schooled John McCain on a “simple three letter word” today: “J-O-B-S” He also took after “Joe the Plumber.” Biden insisted that he knows plumbers too and they make less the McCain’s plumber...

Music Teacher?s Sex Change Operation Causes Outcry at Foxboro Elementary

Posted on October 16, 2008
In Vacaville, California, parents prefers their music teachers to remain one gender — or at least give them notice when a gender changes. When a music teacher returned to school as a man after an operation, parents protested and children have been pulled from his class...

Florida Student Sues Over Shirtless ?Lustful? Picture Published in Gay Magazine

Posted on October 16, 2008
A University of Central Florida student Benjamin Massing wanted exposure as a model when he posed shirtless in a photo. He got a lot more exposure than he expected, but it was not where he expected it. Genre Magazine, a publication geared toward a readership, published the photo and Massing instantly became a [...

New York Officials Send Out Absentee Ballots Listing ?Barack Osama? ? If Voters Correct Spelling, Their Vote is Nullified

Posted on October 15, 2008
Republican officials in the Rensselaer County Board of Elections is insisting that a mere typographical error led to absentee ballots being sent to at least 300 voters giving them the choice of either voting for John McCain or “Barack Osama.” Worse yet, if a voter corrected the spelling, the vote is nullified...

Justice Denied When Law DeLayed: Fellow Justice Accuses Chief Justice Ken Law of Withholding Opinion in Case of Ken DeLay

Posted on October 15, 2008
The on-going (never-ending?) prosecution of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has taken a bizarre twist as a serious disagreement between justices has broken into the open. Justice Jan Patterson, a Democrat, is asking the Texas Supreme Court to intervene after she accused Chief Justice Ken Law, a Republican (first picture), of refusing [...

Law Steps in to Help Poor Sod: Elderly Man Released After Neighbors Plant Grass in Yard

Posted on October 15, 2008
As discussed earlier, 66-year-old grandfather, Joseph Prudente, has been sitting in jail because the fully lawned people at the Beacon Woods Civic Association secured the contempt order for his failure to keep up his front lawn. Despite national outcry, the head of the association and its lawyer believed that this was a fair response [...

Former Journalist and Politician Arrested In New York for Attempted Sex With Minor

Posted on October 15, 2008
Former New York State Republican Assemblyman and National Public Radio (NPR) reporter Chris Ortloff has been arrested for attempting to lure a minor into having sex with him. Ortloff is currently on the state parole board and was arrested at a hotel in Colonie, N...

Casey Anthony Arrested After Highway Car Switch

Posted on October 15, 2008
In Orlando, Florida, police moved in to arrest Casey Anthony after she switched cars on a highway, which police feared was an attempt to flee. She was charged shortly after an indictment was issued by the grand jury. What is most striking in the case is that her own father appears ready to [...

White House Directly Approved Torture in Newly Disclosed Memos

Posted on October 15, 2008
Previously classified memos from the White House confirm that torture was directly approved at the highest level of the government. The Administration has previously suggested that it rescinded the infamous torture memo signed by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and treated that memorandum as an aberrant mistake...

TSA Employee Arrested as Stealing More than 100 Items Out of Luggage and Trying to Sell Them on EBay

Posted on October 14, 2008
Pythias Brown As a screener at Newark Liberty International Airport, Pythias Brown let nothing get past him — literally. He is accused of stealing over 100 valuable items like 66 cameras while working for the Transportation Security Administration...

Democrat Tim Mahoney Snared in Sex Scandal Only Two Years After Replacing Mark Foley

Posted on October 14, 2008
The Democrats may have just lost a seat that was going for them. Florida Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney, who replaced Mark Foley after his page scandal, is now embroiled in his own sex scandal. That is fast work for a politician. Foley only resigned in 2006...

FBI Puts ?Honor Killing? Suspect on Wanted List

Posted on October 14, 2008
In what may be the first such listing, the FBI is seeking the capture of Yaser Abdel Said for a double “honor killing.” Muslim groups are opposed to the use of the term, but the evidence appears to support the theory that the killings were due to the father’s “shame” that his daughters Sarah [...

California First-Graders Taken to Teacher?s Same-Sex Wedding as Official Field Trip

Posted on October 14, 2008
There is an interesting feud in San Francisco after first-grade students to the wedding of their Lesbian teacher’s wedding. Opponents of same-sex marriage object that this is a major religious and political controversy and that the event (where students threw rose petals on teacher Erin Carder and her now wife Kerri McCoy) was “indoctrination...

Meet Andy Martin: The Man Behind the Obama is a Muslim Rumors

Posted on October 13, 2008
The New York Times has an interesting profile of the man who is credited with fueling the false stories that Obama is a Muslim. What has been astonishing for many of us is that being a Muslim would even be an issue — even if it were true. What is even more astonishing [...

Study: One in Three Recent Police Academy Graduates Have Criminal Records in Atlanta

Posted on October 13, 2008
A study of recent graduates of the Atlanta Police Department’s academy shows that one out of three have criminal records. The study also found that 36 percent admitted that they had been rejected by other police departments. In my view, the mere fact that someone was once arrested should not be a barrier to police [...

Guantanamo Bay Prosecutor Calls Bush Tribunals Fundamentally Unfair and Resigns His Post

Posted on October 13, 2008
When the military tribunals were being created at Guantanamo Bay, some of us publicly stated that we would not take cases because the rules written by the Administration were fundamentally unfair and did not recognize core principles of due process. Since then, there have been a steady stream of prosecutors and defense lawyers in [...

Chicago to Create ?Gay High School?

Posted on October 13, 2008
Chicago school officials are recommending the creation of a “gay-friendly” high school to accommodate rising numbers of gay and lesbian students and reduce harassment in the school system. I have long been opposed to the increasing specialization and balkanization of the public school system...

Putting the Prude Back Into Prudente: Florida Man Jailed for Failure to Sod Lawn

Posted on October 12, 2008
In the appropriately named Bayonet Point, Florida, Joseph Prudente, 66, is in jail indefinitely for the failure to sod his grass. The good (and fully lawned) people of the Beacon Woods Civic Association secured the contempt order because Prudente is required to keep his lawn with a full and healthy display of grass...

Lawsuit Filed to Unfreeze Assets of Muslim Charity

Posted on October 12, 2008
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has filed an important case. On Friday, the group filed a lawsuit on behalf of KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc. The charity was founded in 2002 after the Administration shutdown other Muslim charities, including the very controversial action taken against the Holyland Foundation...

Neighbor Charged with Feeding Dogs Nails and Broken Glass to Stop Barking

Posted on October 12, 2008
In Pittsburgh, Brett Kolarik, 41, has confessed to feeding two dogs meatballs mixed with nails and broken glass. He will be sentenced for animal cruelty. The dogs’ owner, Deborah Rogers investigated what was in the meatballs when her two dogs, Shadow and Pepper, appeared sick: “I took a stick and shoved [the meat] and seen [...

The Lowest Common Denominator: Racist Displays Again Openly Displayed at Palin Rally

Posted on October 12, 2008
Many Americans have been taken aback by the racist and hatred seen at recent McCain/Palin rallies from calls to “kill him” to openly racist displays. This guy attended a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania with a stuffed monkey with a Barack Obama bumper sticker on its forehead...

Iran Set to Execute Another Christian for Converting From Islam

Posted on October 12, 2008
In another flagrant violation of international law and human rights, Iran is set to execute Ramdin Soodmand for the crime of converting from Islam. Sharia law mandates such punishment and Islamic countries continue to apply the penalty despite the fact that it violates core international principles...

Connecticut Rules In Favor of Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on October 11, 2008
In a major civil liberties ruling, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that gay and lesbian couples have the right to get married. While conservatives like Sarah Palin have insisted that we should leave questions like abortion to the states, this ruling is likely to increase calls for a federal constitutional amendment to prevent [...

Shock Video: Car Stolen as Police Officer Gives Interview with CNN

Posted on October 11, 2008
I just stumbled over this video of a police officer giving an interview with CNN as a thief steals a car behind him and proceeds on a high-speed chase. Gilbert police spokesman Sgt. Mark Marino certainly now has an answer when people ask “where is a cop when you need him?” For the video, click [...

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