Legal Commentary

Bus Rage: Greyhound Cancels Ad Campaign After One Passengers Cuts the Head Off Another Passenger

Posted on August 06, 2008
Greyhound has decided that its ad campaign will have to be pulled after the recent decapitation and cannibalism of one of its passengers by another passenger. Greyhound campaign proclaimed: “There’s a reason you’ve never heard of ‘bus rage...

Preacher Convicted of Murdering Elderly Man to Conceal Theft of Money

Posted on August 06, 2008
Rev. Howard Douglas Porter has been convicted in the death of 85-year-old Frank Craig — a murder committed to hide the fact that Porter had stolen $1.1 million from the elderly man under the false pretext of building an agricultural museum. Porter staged two car wrecks in his effort to kill Craig in Hickman, [...

Bin Laden?s Driver Convicted in Military Tribunal

Posted on August 06, 2008
As expected, Osama Bin Laden’s former driver Salim Hamdan was found guilty of five counts of material support to a terror organization in the September 11, 2001, attacks. He was tried before the military tribunal and found not guilty of conspiracy to aid a terror organization by a panel of six military officers...

Former Senator and Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel Calls for Picketing Al-Arian Prosecutors

Posted on August 06, 2008
Fox News is running a tape recording of former U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel calling for the picketing of Gordon Kromberg over the abuses in the case of Dr. Sami Al-Arian. The tape was made during a small discussion in Washington and Sen...

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Ohio Officer Acquitted After Allegedly Shooting a Woman Who Was On Her Knees Holding Her Baby

Posted on August 05, 2008
Sgt. Joseph Chavalia has been acquitted in the SWAT case from Lima, Ohio. Prosecution experts in the trial of Chavalia concluded that the SWAT killed Tarika Wilson, 26, by shooting her in the neck and chest while she was on her knees, complying with their orders, and holding one of her children...

Civil and Criminal Charges Brought in Teamster Summer Camp Controversy

Posted on August 05, 2008
In the aftermath of the e-coli outbreak at the Boy Scout Reservation at Goshen, Virginia, here, another summer camp is the subject of a court filing by families. Families of more than 100 children have joined a class-action lawsuit involving the Teamsters Union...

Home with Mommy: Mary Winkler Resumes Custody of Children After Killing Their Father

Posted on August 05, 2008
Mary Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her husband, Church of Christ minister Matthew Winkler. However, she has now been reunited with her children and given full custody. Winkler was sentenced only to three years in prison and spent only 12 days in jail after her sentencing...

Ohio Police Arrest Man Claiming to be an ?Underwear Measurer? for Sexual Assault of Children

Posted on August 05, 2008
A case out of Cincinnati, Ohio has many of us scratching our heads at the judgment of some parents. Ben Hawkins scammed parents into believing that he was a researcher who needed to measure the underwear of their children — alone. He was just arrested for sexual assault of the children...

Meet the Navy?s New $5 Billion Sitting Duck

Posted on August 05, 2008
Recently, the Navy surprised many by announcing that it was scrapping its multi-billion dollar construction program of the new Zumwalt class of stealth destroyers — after only two ships are built. After the first $5 billion ship was completed, the Navy canceled the program...

Dr. Sami Al-Arian Files to Compel Disclosure and Objects to Lack of Contact with Counsel

Posted on August 05, 2008
Dr. Sami Al-Arian was moved to yet another prison facility — again roughly 100 miles away — less than a week before his pre-trial hearing. We have filed the notice below to contest these movements and support our request for a continuance...

Pay As You Go: Leaky Toilet in China Reveals Millions in Soggy Bribes

Posted on August 04, 2008
Chinese authorities have shown the importance of maintaining properly running toilets — your life could depend on it. Yan Dabin was the former director of transportation for Wushan County in southwest China. He was arrested after a resident in his apartment building called police about water leaking through his ceiling...

Microscopic People: Colorado Amendment Would Declare Fertilized Eggs To Be Persons

Posted on August 04, 2008
A proposed Colorado constitutional amendment would define a fertilized human egg as a person. The Egg-As-Person amendment is set for a vote for November — a ballot initiative that could drive religious voters to the polls to the advantage of John McCain...

Saudi Religious Police Official Arrested for Excess of Wives

Posted on August 04, 2008
A 56-year-old official in the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had been arrested for exceeding the wife limit in the Jazan province of Saudi Arabia. Under Sharia law, a man can have as many as four wives but the official had accumulated six wives...

Milwaukee Forecloses on Home of Disabled Man Over Unpaid $50 Parking Ticket

Posted on August 04, 2008
Peter Tubic might not have known in 2004 that he could not park his own broken down van in his own driveway without a proper license plate. What he surely did not know is that the $50 ticket could eventually cost him the house itself. The city foreclosed on his $245,000 home after [...

Israel Restricts Universities to a Limit of 70 Palestinian Students a Year

Posted on August 04, 2008
Israel’s six most prestigious universities are fighting a limitation imposed by the military that would make them justify the acceptance of more than 70 Palestinian students as students. There is also a bar on these students taking certain courses...

145 People Dead After Stampede At Hindu Festival

Posted on August 03, 2008
Another religious event has led to a massive death toll in India. The most recent stampede occurred in northern India at the Naina Devi Temple in Bilaspur district. As if often the case, the authorities and organizers allowed too many people to squeeze into a small area and then claimed amazement that a [...

Man Arrested in Flagrante Delicto Whilst Driving North Shooting Kangaroos

Posted on August 03, 2008
There are just some crimes that are difficult define. This arrest of Brendon Alan Erhardt, 39, would be one of them and it would not be “shooting kangaroos from the vehicle whilst driving north”. This would have to be charged as drug possession and reckless driving in the United States, but it hardly [...

Deal Gone Bad: British Reveals a Deal with a Prisoner that Led to Their Withdrawal ? and Lawlessness ? In Basra

Posted on August 03, 2008
Remember the British pullout that led to all of the lawlessness and killings? It turns out to have been triggered by a disastrous deal struck with a Shia prisoner, Ahmed al-Fartusi, who promised that the release of him and his men (and the withdrawal of British forces) would stop the violence...

In Mistaken Pot Raid, SWAT Team Members Shoot Mayor?s Two Dogs, Bust Into Home, and Handcuff Mayor and his Mother-in-Law

Posted on August 03, 2008
The Prince George’s Sheriff was investigating the delivery of marijuana on July 31, 2008. A pot package would normally not be viewed as the equivalent to the Lindburgh kidnapping, but you would not know it from the reaction of the Prince George’s sheriff’s office...

New Mexico Sperm Donor Found Liable for Child Support

Posted on August 02, 2008
In the latest decision involving the liability of sperm donors, the New Mexico Court of Appeals says some sperm donors must pay child support. The case involves Kevin Zoernig who agreed to donate sperm for two children with Janna Mintz. Mintz is a lesbian who wanted a child with her partner in the [...

Dis-Grace: CNN?s Nancy Grace Loses Critical Motion in Court

Posted on August 02, 2008
It appears that CNN’s Nancy Grace will have to answer for her conduct on her program. CNN and Grace have been sued for the wrongful death of Melinda Duckett, who committed suicide after Grace attacked her on the program — suggesting that she was responsible for her own child’s disappearance...

Latest Tampering Fatality: Dead on Skunk Hollow Road

Posted on August 02, 2008
In Onway, Arkansas, Lonnie Montgomery created a tragic example of assumption of the risk in tort. Montgomery was found dead on Skunk Hollow Road after he tried to re-establish electrical service with a pair of jumper cables. It appears to be an urban legend gone bad that all you need is a pair [...

Earning Your E-Coli Badge: 18 Scouts Sickened at Virginia Camp

Posted on August 02, 2008
Today I filed from Goshen — the huge Virginia Cub Scout reservation where my oldest son was completing a week of camping as a cub scout. I only learned when I returned that nine scouts were sickened by E. coli 0157 at the camp. Now, with eighteen serious cases and 60 scouts [...

Speaker Pelosi?s Latest Justification for Barring Impeachment: Bush Would Never Cooperate With His Own Impeachment

Posted on August 02, 2008
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued her search for book sales and it seems her search for a plausible rationale for personally blocking any impeachment investigation of President Bush. The latest explanation can in an interview with Time Magazine. It seems that she would not allow an investigation because Bush would never have supplied [...

Dr. Sami Al-Arian Files for a Trial Continuance

Posted on August 01, 2008
This morning, we filed a motion for a continuance of the August Trial scheduled for our client, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. As the motion below indicates, the government has cut off Dr. Al-Arian from counsel by first moving him 90 miles away and then refusing to allow him confidential attorney-client telephone calls...

CIA Intercepts Tie Pakistani Intelligence Service to July 7th bombing of India?s Embassy in Kabul

Posted on August 01, 2008
The CIA has disclosed that surveillance intercepts show Pakistani Intelligence officials planning the attack on India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan — an attack that killed 54 people. The evidence also implicates the service in working with militants in Afghanistan and leaking American efforts to track down terrorists...

Stick a Fork in Yourself Because You?re Dunn: Man Arrested in Baby Food Poisoning Hoax

Posted on August 01, 2008
New York has an interesting hoax case involving another YouTube-related crime video. In this case, Anton Dunn has been arrested for videos of himself proclaiming that he had poisoned millions of bottles of baby food –causing a panic. He said that he wanted to kill hispanic and black children...

Guilty Verdict in Videotaped Sex Slaying

Posted on August 01, 2008
Richard D. Davis has been found guilty of killing Marsha Spicer of Independence, Missouri in a bizarre videotaped sex slaying. He was also convicted of 24 other counts. He now faces the death penalty, which seems a virtual lock given the videotape and heinous elements of the murder...

Anthrax Suspect Commits Suicide as FBI Closes In

Posted on August 01, 2008
Only recently, the FBI and Justice Department agreed to a huge settlement with Steven Hatfill for $5.82 million after ruining his life and his career through harassment and baseless charges as the suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings. At the time, many of us stated that such a settlement was likely an indicator that [...

The Wicker Murder: Execution Interrupted by a Prisoner?s Last Minute Confession

Posted on August 01, 2008
With only a couple days to execution, Thomas Arthur, 66, was given a postponement by the Alabama Supreme Court after another prisoner signed a sworn statement that he committed the murder. Bobby Ray Gilbert now claims that he killed Troy Wicker Jr. of Muscle Shoals, Alabama...

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