Legal Commentary

FIG leaf? The OIC Insists That There is No Evidence of Underaged Chinese Gymnasts

Posted on August 22, 2008
As if to fulfill the worst stereotypes of itself, the International Olympic Committee issued a statement today insisting that there is no evidence of any falsification of the age of Chinese gymnasts — citing the simple fact that they have valid Chinese passports...

Harvard Re-Takes Number One Slot in College Rankings

Posted on August 22, 2008
In a bit of a surprise for many academics, Harvard University has re-taken the number one slot in the college rankings of U.S. News and World Report. Princeton fell to the second position followed by Yale, MIT and Stanford. The rankings of the top ten universities and liberal arts colleges are below...

Religious Man Eaten After Seeking Blessing from Crocodile

Posted on August 22, 2008
Rubel Sheikh, 25, reportedly went to a shrine in Bangladesh to receive the blessings of one of five crocodiles in the shrine pond. He quickly became a Bangladish when the crocodile skipped the blessing and went straight to eating Sheikh. Rubel Sheikh and his mother traveled with their mother to receive the blessing at the [...

No Breiner: Texas Officer Insists That He Was Paid To Have Sex With Prostitutes As Part of His Duties

Posted on August 22, 2008
Beaumont, Texas Police Officer Keith Breiner took the stand in his own defense in the scandal involving vice cops having sex with prostitutes. Breiner insisted that he had to have sex with the women to make the case against them and that he was just doing his job...

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Abuse Charges Against Michigan Teacher Dropped As Prosecutor Faces Bar Disciplinary Action

Posted on August 22, 2008
A highly controversial prosecution of a Michigan kindergarten teacher has ended with a new team of prosecutors dropping all charges “in the interests of justice.” The admission did not come until after James Perry, 34, was put through two trials — the first resulted in an overturned conviction due to conflicting evidence...

Florida Principal Outs High School Lesbian, Orders Her to Stay Away from Children, and Punishes Students Who Support Her

Posted on August 22, 2008
It appears that a principal at Ponce de Leon High School felt that he had made an important discovery himself in Florida. Principal David Davis was shocked when a student came to him about being harassed about being a lesbian. It was not the harassment but the lesbian part that shocked Davis [...

Bigfoot Hoaxster Sighting! Ex-Cop and Ex-Correctional Officer Fess Up to World?s Stupidest Stunt

Posted on August 22, 2008
A television studio has the photos! An actual Bigfoot hoaxster sitting in a studio as big as life. Former police officer Matt Whitton and his equally dim-witted friend (and former correctional officer) Rick Dyer came out of hiding to fess up to fabricating the carcass of a Bigfoot...

Formal Investigation Launched into Age of Chinese Gymnast He Kexin

Posted on August 21, 2008
The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into the mounting evidence of an official campaign by the Chinese government to falsify the age of gold medalist He Kexin. Recently uncovered Chinese documents reinforce the widespread view that China has lied to the OIC and, again, altered government documents to qualify an underaged [...

U.S. Hacker Hits Gold: Documents Appear to Confirm Falsified Ages of Chinese Gymnast

Posted on August 21, 2008
A U.S. hacker has gained access to closed Chinese documents that allegedly prove what has long been alleged: China is lying about the ages of its gymnastic team. The documents relate to He Kexin, who edged out American Nastia Liukin for the gold on uneven bars...

Denver Bans the Carrying of Feces and Urine for Nefarious Purposes

Posted on August 21, 2008
Police in Denver are now authorized by the city council to arrest people who are found carrying feces or urine for nefarious purposes. Denver officials are expected protesters at the convention and have adopted an openly hostile attitude toward such demonstrations...

Two Chinese Elderly Women Face a Year in Reeducation Camp for Applying for a Protest Permit

Posted on August 21, 2008
In a further demonstration of China’s complete failure to honor its promises on the treatment of protests, two elderly women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, are facing a year of “reeducation through labor” because they applied for permits to demonstrate during the Olympics...

Citizen Takes Picture of Cop in Traffic Violation and is Promptly Arrested and Jailed

Posted on August 21, 2008
Andrew Carter thought that he was performing a public duty when he photographed an English police officer going the wrong way down a one-way street. Officer Aqil Farooq did not agree — upon seeing Farooq, he jumped out of the van, knocked the camera to the ground, handcuffed and arrested Carter...

Sen. Stevens Seeks to Set Up Fund Connected to His Official Duties in the Senate: To Defend Him on Corruption Charges

Posted on August 21, 2008
Under Senate ethics rules, a Senator can establish a legal expense fund and accept contributions if it is related to his “official duties.” Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has asked the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee to approve such a fund to help him defend himself against claims that he sold his official duties to the [...

University of Iowa Professor Disappears After Charges Filed in Fondling-for-Grades Scandal

Posted on August 21, 2008
University of Iowa professor Arthur Miller, 66, has been reported missing after he was charged with four counts of seeking bribes in the form of fondling female students in exchange for higher grades. The political science professor allegedly asked to touch the breasts of four female students between May 8 and 13...

How a Jihadist Curtailed a President?s Authority

Posted on August 21, 2008
Today, the New York Times ran a book review that I wrote on The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power by Jonathan Mahler. The book details the development of the Hamdan case, which ultimately ended in the Supreme Court with a defeat for the Bush Administration...

Gnome de Guerre: Pennsylvania Man Convicted of Aggravated Assault with Garden Gnome

Posted on August 20, 2008
Charles S. Morrison, 31, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania proved that a person with a temper and a garden gnome can be a dangerous combination. Morrison was convicted of five criminal charges, including aggravated assault for throwing a 2-pound concrete garden gnome through a glass door at his stepdaughter...

South Carolina Father Accused of Killing Unarmed Teen at Party

Posted on August 20, 2008
Lexington, South Carolina authorities are dealing over a difficult criminal case this week. Francis Marion Reeves III, 62, is charged with murder in the Friday shooting death of 17-year-old Deshaun Rashad Clark. The case could turn on very murky facts involving a theft, beating, retaliation, and a drive-by — and one irate father...

Father Charged in Electrocution of 11-Month-Old Son From Defective Clock

Posted on August 20, 2008
In Denver, Colorado, a father, Ernesto Talavera-Nunez, is charged with the death of his 11-month-old son who touched exposed electrical wires on an alarm clock that he had repaired. He could now face 16 years for a class-three child abuse felony. The boy ultimately suffered burns and died of cardiac arrest...

Two Bronx Cops Charged with Road Rage Assault

Posted on August 20, 2008
Two off-duty NYPD Officers Michelle Anglin, 37, and Koleen Robinson, 24, were charged with assault, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon for a road rage incident that resulted in the beating of driver Marion Smith. The incident began in true New York tradition with two driver’s screaming profanities at each other — [...

Tapeworm Tort: Chicago Restaurant Sued for 9-Foot Tapeworm

Posted on August 20, 2008
Now, this makes for an interesting factual causation case. We often talk about the chain of causation, but this case involves a 9-foot tapeworm of causation. Anthony Franz blames Shaw’s Crab House in 2006 and had salmon salad. He later became violently ill and “passed” the giant tapeworm...

Police Officer and Former Correctional Guard Accused of Fraudulent Bigfoot Story

Posted on August 19, 2008
Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer in Georgia seemed eager to grab their 15 minutes of fame to the point of claiming to have the actual body of a deceased Bigfoot frozen in their freezer. It turned out to be a rubber suit and the question now is whether the two will be criminally [...

Louisiana Man Kills Girlfriend During Gun Demonstration

Posted on August 19, 2008
Curtis C. Murray of Gretna, Louisiana has been arrested for negligent homicide after he shot and killed his girlfriend while showing her a gun. Averyell Davis, 23, died after receiving a shot to the abdomen. The charge stands in stark contrast to a few recent cases involving police officers involved in such home [...

Hospital Staff Dance and Play Cards as Patient Dies After Being Abandoned in Chair for 22 Hours

Posted on August 19, 2008
A North Carolina mental patient died after nurses and doctors at the state mental hospital left him in a chair for 22 hours without food or assistance. The death of Steven H. Sabock, 50, was recorded on a security video. He choked on medication while a nurse stands nearby without rendering assistance at [...

Sixteen-Year-Old Girl Drinks Bleach to Avoid Arranged Marriage with 75-Year-Old Man in Saudi Arabia

Posted on August 19, 2008
The continued abuse of girls in arranged marriages in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries is a global scandal. This week, we have yet another glimpse into the nightmare faced by young girls. A girl known only as Shaikha drank a bottle of bleach in an attempted suicide to avoid an arranged [...

Hands on a Hardbody: Texas Dealership Settles Case Over Suicide in Truck Contest

Posted on August 19, 2008
Now here is an interesting torts lawsuit. Patterson Nissan car dealership of Longview, Texas settled a lawsuit filed by Chalala Gutierrez, the widow of Richard Thomas Vega II. Vega committed suicide after dropping out of a contest in which contestants tried to keep their hand on a truck the longest...

Pick-Up and Get Out Out: Texas Home Owner Told by Association to Get Rid of F-150 Truck In Drive-Way

Posted on August 19, 2008
Jim Greenwood has a brand new Ford F-150 sitting in his driveway — the virtual symbol of the Texan lifestyle. However, the Stonebriar home owners association in Frisco, Texas views the F-150 as decidedly low-brow in their high-end community and has told him to remove it...

Human Rights Group: Pakistani Women Being Burned or Mutilated with Acid by Husbands and Boyfriends

Posted on August 18, 2008
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has published a very disturbing study that found that in 2007 dozens of women were burned in acid attacks or set on fire in Pakistan by their husbands or boyfriends. The government appears to have done little to deter these attacks...

Pelosi: Obama Blessed by God

Posted on August 18, 2008
God may be technically an independent, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stated that he is the power behind the selection of Barack Obama as our leader. It was God who “blessed us” with the elevation of Obama — a remark that seems designed to justify a controversial video below on Obama being divinely chosen [...

Afghan Justice: Rape Victims Jailed for Illegal Sexual Contacts

Posted on August 18, 2008
Afghan justice was once again on display with a recent visit of journalists who visited a women’s prison in Lashkar Gah where two-thirds of the women were convicted of illegal sex offenses with many simply being victims of rape. In the last two years, Afghanistan has moved steadily back to the medieval Islamic traditions enforced by [...

Cheek Slapped with Cosmetic Charges: North Carolina Spa Owner Faces 20 Felony Counts for Cosmetic Injections

Posted on August 18, 2008
Criminal charges have been filed against a spa owner in Greensboro, North Carolina in a case that is likely to also produce civil lawsuits. Lauretta Cheek is charged with causing kidney failure in people who received injections of Silskin, a cosmetic drug that is supposed to be given only under a doctor’s proscription...

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