Law

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 03:16pm

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 02:44pm

"Jury gets case of blogger accused of judge threats": The Associated Press has this report. And at the "City Room" blog of The New York Times, William Glaberson has a post titled "Prosecutors Say Blogger Was Inciting Hate."

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 02:35pm

In Florida, a neo-Nazi is on trial for murder, and the judge is letting a licensed cosmetologist -- at taxpayer expense -- cover up the guy's tattoos on his face and neck. "This on the side says 'f--- you,' (and)...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 02:22pm

"Behind Justice Stevens' Recusal in Florida Case": SCOTUS recusal guru Tony Mauro has this post at "The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times."

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 02:07pm

Delayed issuance of U.S. Supreme Court opinions in argued cases has finally been explained -- it's the Jan Crawford Greenburg effect! Today at "The Volokh Conspiracy," quarterback John Elwood has a post titled "So . . . Where Are The (Argued) Supreme Court Cases? Part Deux." The most obvious explanation, at least to me, is that correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg is side[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 01:58pm

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 01:40pm

In Keystone, Colo., authorities questioned a woman who was apparently using someone else's ski pass -- someone named Daniel. But she could totally explain: SHE was Daniel, only she was partway through a sex change, the Summit Daily News reports....

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 01:27pm

Like Chris Bowers, Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) is still fighting for the public option. Would love to see some fight from Joe Sestak on the issue. The rationales for supporting Sestak are becoming less apparent by the day. Speaking for me only

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 01:20pm

By now, we know quite a bit about how Fort Lauderdale attorney and alleged Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein spent his money. The picture has, to date, been less clear, however, in regard to how he brought in the money he ultimately spent. But a big part of the mystery became clearer when we read this piece earlier Friday in the Miami Herald. Wealthy Fort Lauderdale investor George Levin and his Ban[...]

Tags: Criminal Law, #038, Hedge Funds &amp, Private Equity, Rothstein Rosenfeldt

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 12:26pm

The story is from Greene County, the Springfield area. The teacher is getting a five-year suspended sentence. Kathee Baird reports the young man's family is suing for almost $2 million. Hat Tip: Many thanks, Kathee!

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 12:16pm

Sometime, we’d imagine, being a trial-court judge gets a little tedious and tiresome. All those motions to exclude and dismiss; boxes of evidence and F.3ds; everyone kissing up to you all the time. But at other times, the job can be a bit more, well, interesting. Take, for instance, the evidence ordered up on Wednesday by Panama City, Fla., federal judge Richard Smoak. On Wednesday, Ju[...]

Tags: Judges, Media

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 12:03pm

That land is in Wisconsin ...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:59am

One of the police officers who reportedly stopped the Fort Hood shooter says she probably won't be able to return to regular police work. Kimberly Munley, who was shot in the leg, will need a complete knee replacement, which will...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:52am

Ted P. Yeatman will long be remembered as one of the foremost scholars of the James Gang ever. After a long battle with illness Ted passed away recently. The Baltimore Sun ran a nice obituary. The author was lauded for his truly groundbreaking biography of the James Gang, which was published in 2001. He was featured in a spot on C-SPAN's Booknotes program, archived online here. His book [...]

Tags: The Love Pirate and the Bandit&#039, s Son, Legends of True Crime Reporting, Wild West

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:38am

In Hannibal, city leaders are so annoyed about vandalism that they are considering ways to keep spray paint out of young people's hands, the Courier-Post reports. One proposal would require an ID to buy spray paint. Another would ban young...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:33am

Some good news: In the strongest employment report since the recession began nearly two years ago, the government said Friday that the nation’s employers had all but stopped shedding jobs in November, taking some of the pressure off of President Obama to come up with a wide-ranging jobs creation program. The Labor Department reported that the United States economy lost 11,000 jobs in N[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:22am

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:21am

The New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department has accepted the resignation and struck from its rolls an attorney in the wake of findings of dishonesty in his post-divorce litigation. The court notes: ...this Court granted the Departmental...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:18am

Not familiar with the Whizzinator? As the AP says, it is "a male prosthetic to a container holding dehydrated urine warmed to body temperate with heat packs." And it's used to beat drug tests. A Missouri legislator is recommending a...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:17am

In my first year of law school I had to take a course called Common Law Property, which lasted a whole year. It was taught by a brilliant Harvard Law graduate who believed that, to understand our current legal rules, you need to understand how the rules came into being. Property law is, of course, focused on how title to property is acquired and then transferred. My professor spent weeks[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 11:05am

An Arizona hearing officer has recommended the censure of an attorney who is a certified specialist in personal injury and wrongful death. He had a number of clients who faced "challenging financial circumstances" and arranged loans to clients through an...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:55am

Four women have sued Joe Francis of "Girls Gone Wild," alleging they were just teenagers when they were filmed "in stages of undress or engaged in sexual activity," AP reports. Francis has filed a motion to dismiss. A federal judge...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:45am

The New York Times profiles Dr. LeRoy H. Carhart of Bellevue, Neb. Carhart was a friend of the late George Tiller and is starting to offer late-term abortions -- which means he's becoming the focus of Operation Rescue and others...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:36am

Scammer/Spammers are nothing if not agile.  And so, while Eric the Turk at New York Personal Injury Blog pursues the scandalous Martindale-Hubbell Spammer-Palooza, fellow New York blawger Andrew Bluestone at New York Attorney Malpractice Blog has found what it feels like to be on the other side of the scam.  See what happens when you establish too much credibility?Apparently, som[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:30am

"Abortion Battle Shifts to Clinic in Nebraska": Today's edition of The New York Times contains an article that begins, "The national battle over abortion, for decades firmly planted outside the Kansas clinic of Dr. George R. Tiller, has erupted here in suburban Omaha, where a longtime colleague has taken up the cause of late-term abortions. Since Dr. Tiller was shot to death in[...]

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:25am

In May, a man armed with a baseball bat tried to rob a Long Island convenience store. Only the store's owner had a rifle. Instead of calling the police or, you know, shooting the guy, the proprietor gave the robber...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 10:17am

Federal judge wants to watch "Girls Gone Wild" videos: Hey, it's all in a day's work. The News Herald of Panama City, Florida reports today that "Judge wants all GGW video footage; Will use content to help decide motion to dismiss case against Joe Francis." The newspaper has posted the court's order at this link.

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 09:56am

Not crime-related, just an interesting case ... Near Richmond, Va., a 90-year-old veteran is fighting to keep a 21-foot-tall flagpole in his yard, against the wishes of his homeowners association. The HOA says it's a violation of their rules. Moreover,...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 09:44am

From AP: This photo provided by the Macomb County Sheriff's Department on Thursday Dec. 3, 2009 shows Jesse Eden. Eden, 26, of Shelby Township, Mich. was jailed after police say he tried to divert them by calling 911 to report...

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 09:39am

It’s now a near legendary tale: SEC lawyers, prompted by calls by do-gooder Harry Markopolous, looked into Bernie Madoff years ago, but failed to nab him. A similar story has now surfaced in regard to hedge-fund mogul Raj Rajaratnam, who was charged with insider-trading related securities fraud in October. According to this piece, by WSJ reporters Justin Scheck, Robert Guth and Ben Char[...]

Tags: Criminal Law, Insider Trading, Rajaratnam