Legal Commentary

Lovin? It or Leavin? It: Christian Group Boycotts McDonald?s for Supporting Gay Chamber of Commerce

Posted on July 17, 2008
Ever wonder what the McDonald’s slogan “I’m Lovin’ It” means? The American Family Association thinks it knows: Gays. Not just gays, but gay business people. Well, not just gay business people — that cabal of gay spreading, bottom lining executives known as the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce...

Ken?s Been a Bad Boy: Christian Group Protests ?S & M Barbie?

Posted on July 17, 2008
Christian Voice, a group of religious activists with apparently a great deal of time on their hands, has launched a protest against a new outfit of Barbie called Black Canary Barbie. They insist it looks like a dress up for S & M play and is complete “filth” that must be stopped to protect [...

Ten-Year-Old Girl in Yemen Married and Then Raped ? Then Divorced

Posted on July 16, 2008
Another abuse story is emerging from the Middle East on the treatment of young girls. Nujood Ali, 10, was married to a man in his 30s, who then allegedly raped her. While she is now divorced, she has been criticized for confronting her husband and not accepting her fate...

Florida Judge Finds Police Entrapped 94-Year-Old Man With Dementia in Prostitution Sting

Posted on July 16, 2008
A very disturbing case has emerged from Florida where police entrapped Frank Milio, a 94-year-old man suffering from dementia. What is remarkable is that prosecutors did not drop these charges. It took a judge to throw them out — allowing Milio to move into an assisted care facility...

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Dr. Sami Al-Arian: Affidavits Filed With the Court Show Government Seeks to Re-Argue Florida Trial

Posted on July 16, 2008
In the last hearing, Prosecutor Gordon Kromberg indicated that Dr. Al-Arian was being charged with his refusal to answer questions from his Florida trial — not questions related to the IIIT investigation. Indeed, as these affidavits established, Dr...

Georgia Police Officer Arrested for Kidnapping and Rape

Posted on July 16, 2008
A Cobb County sheriff’s deputy has been arrested and accused of rape, officials said Tuesday. The deputy was fired after the sheriff learned of his arrest. Officers in Cobb County were eager to track down the man who took a woman at gun point from a bar and then handcuffed and raped her...

Boston Firefighter Raises Eyebrows By Competing in Body Builder Competition While on Disability Pay

Posted on July 16, 2008
Boston firefighter, Albert Arroyo, has every reason to be proud of his eighth place finish in a body building competition. However, the Boston fire department was more interested in the fact that he is supposed to be on permanent disability after a fall two months hurt his back...

How Not to Avoid Jury Duty: Florida Women Curses Judge and Goes to Jail

Posted on July 16, 2008
On one level, Sarah E. Muller was successful. Muller, 23, did not want to serve on a jury at the Marion County Courthouse Monday. When County Judge R. James McCune Jr. refused to dismiss her, she called him a seven-letter word for an anus. She is now off the jury list and [...

Black Widows Get Two Consecutive Life Sentences

Posted on July 15, 2008
In a prior entry, the bizarre case of murderers Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, were discussed. The two women (known as the “Black widows”) who killed homeless men for insurance benefits have now been sentenced to two consecutive life terms each...

Not So Finger Lickin? Good: Nebraska Jury Awards $40,000 to Family Given Urine and Saliva Tainted Food at KFC/Taco Bell

Posted on July 15, 2008
In Omaha, Nebraska, a police officer and his family won $40,000 in a lawsuit against a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant after it served them food tainted with the saliva and urine of one of the employees. Officer Keith Andrew and his two sons were sickened by the tainted food and, for some bizarre reason, the [...

Putting the Rat Back into Ratatouille: Wisconsin Woman Accused of Planting Cooked Lab Rat in Dish

Posted on July 15, 2008
Seasons Restaurant in Grand Chute, Wisconsin likes to proclaim that “our achievements are the result of your expectations.” However, it is the expectations of Debbie R. Miller, 41, that is now the subject of a criminal case. Miller has been arrested for allegedly planting a dead lab rat in a dish and the [...

Royal Treatment II: Prince Ordered Back to Court in Martha?s Vineyard

Posted on July 15, 2008
In an entry yesterday, we looked at the curious case of Saudi prince, Bader Al Saud, 26, who killed Orlando Ramos, 37, in a crosswalk while driving drunk without a valid license. His punishment was a year in a converted home. He then disappeared. The Court has now ordered him to appear to [...

Bullies in the Dock: Some Parents Take Their Complaints from the Schoolhouse to the Courthouse

Posted on July 15, 2008
Below is today’s column on a growing national trend of parents taking bullying cases to court after receiving no action from school officials. This may be a case where litigation is needed to concentrate the minds of some school officials (and parents of bullies) on the costs of such violence in schools...

Wendy Whitaker: Another Outrage Emerges From Georgia?s Statutory Rape Law

Posted on July 15, 2008
No this is not a story out of Tehran. In Georgia, a federal court is considering an interesting challenge to the state’s sex offender laws. Wendy Whitaker, 28, has had enough. She was put on the sex offender list after being found guilty of having oral sex at 17 with a 15-year-old [...

Dr. Sami Al-Arian Newly Filed Papers Further Contradict Statements of the Justice Department

Posted on July 14, 2008
Last week, the defense filed papers showing that, despite claims of the prosecutors in court to Judge Brinkema, the government has been aware of valid travel documents of Dr. Sami Al-Arian for weeks. Today’s filing, also made at the request of the court, shows that Dr...

Russian Rave: Party Organizers Blind Dozens with Lasers

Posted on July 14, 2008
In Moscow, dozens of audience members received retinal burns from a laser light show — some experiencing 80 blindness in affected eyes. It is an astonishing act of negligence in a country with an extremely rudimentary torts system. The rave party occurred on July 5th as part of the Aquamarine Open Air Festival in [...

California Police Shoot and Kill Woman Approaching Them With Crochet Hook

Posted on July 14, 2008
A Salinas, California woman was killed by Salinas police early Sunday morning when she threatened officers with a metal crochet hook. Her family says that Maria Irma De La Torre, 45, was disabled and suffered from seizures. The officers said that they found De La Torre stabbing herself in the neck and had trouble getting [...

Royal Treatment: Saudi Prince Drives Drunk Without License and Kills a Man ? Gets One Year in Converted Home in Martha?s Vineyard

Posted on July 14, 2008
In Martha’s Vineyard, they sure know how to punish a prince. Saudi prince, Bader Al Saud, 26, killed Orlando Ramos, 37, in a crosswalk while driving drunk without a valid license. His punishment was a year in a converted home and then he simply disappeared while on probation...

High-Caliber Christianity: Oklahoma Baptist Church Plans to Give Away Assault Weapon at Teen Camp

Posted on July 14, 2008
Windsor Hills Baptist had to cancel its plan to give away a semiautomatic assault rifle to a teenager because one of the organizers hurt his foot. While the church has been ridiculed nationally for the event, it is planning to give away the assault rifle next year instead as part of its promotion for [...

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Charged with Genocide

Posted on July 14, 2008
In a long-delayed action, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for a five-year campaign of violence in Darfur. It is a great moment for the rule of law and justice...

Iranian Photographer and Protester Who Appeared in Famous Photo Escapes Iran After Years of Torture

Posted on July 14, 2008
When Ahmad Batebi appeared on the cover of the Economist nine year ago, the world was struck by the image of his holding up a shirt covered in the blood of another protester. The religious fanatics in Iran responded by arresting Batebi and torturing him...

Missionary Position: Mormon Church Excommunicates Creator of Shirtless ?Men on a Mission? Calendar

Posted on July 14, 2008
The council of elders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints likes its mission Mormons in white shirts and black ties, thank you very much. On Sunday, the council excommunicated Chad Hardy for producing his “Men on a Mission” calendar — showing hunky Mormons sans shirts who are on different missions around [...

Foul Ball: Boy Injured from Hit at Wrigley

Posted on July 13, 2008
Dominic DiAngi, 7, received a fractured skull this week from a foul ball hit by Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly. Dominic needed CPR and only recently was transferred from intensive care in Chicago. While I am a Cubs fan by birth right, Wrigley has always been a prime arena for torts...

Mormon Church Cracks Down on ?Men on a Mission? Calendar

Posted on July 13, 2008
It appears that the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not amused. Mormon Chad Hardy has been summoned to a Church disciplinary hearing for possible excommunication after he produced a popular “Men on a Mission” calendar showing Mormon hunks without shirts...

I Had a Dream [Trust Fund]: King Kids Fight Over MLK Estate

Posted on July 13, 2008
The family of Martin Luther King are at it again. The siblings are in court alleging misrepresentation and self-dealing in the handling of the MLK estate. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III are accusing Dexter King of effectively transferring “substantial funds” from Bank of America to accounts he controls...

The Perils of Internet Shopping: Divorcee Found Guilty of Plotting to Kill Ex-Husband on www.Hitman.com

Posted on July 13, 2008
In Dublin, Ireland, Sharon Collins, 45, a divorced mother-of-two, has gotten a bit to comfortable with Internet shopping. Collins arranged to hire a hitman on wwwlhitman.com only to have the assassin-for-hire, Egyptian Essam Eid, contact her former husband to bargain for a no-kill contract...

Children Taken Away From Nazi Mother in Canada

Posted on July 13, 2008
In Winnipeg, a white nationalist mother thought it was fun to draw a swastika on the arm of her seven-year-old daughter. When a teacher rubbed off the mark, the mother drew it back on. The second time, the school reported the incident and child welfare officials took both the daughter and a [...

Laying Hands On Religious Snake Handlers: Police Arrest Pastor of Fundamentalist Church

Posted on July 13, 2008
Kentucky pastor, Gregory James Coots, 36, is in jail this week after wildlife officers found dozens of snakes in his possession. He was one of 10 people arrested in the sweep. Coots is the head of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro — a snake handling sect that recently came under [...

Redskins Win Lawsuit Against Native Americans Over Name

Posted on July 12, 2008
The Washington Redskins won another victory over Native American litigants challenging its name as racially disparaging and offensive. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the name was permissible and not sufficiently insulting to justify stripping it of trademark protection...

Tony Snow Dies at 53

Posted on July 12, 2008
Former Fox anchor and White House spokesman Tony Snow has died. Tony was a friend too many and I was privileged to be among them. Despite our differences of opinion and politics, Tony was a wonderfully person — always engaging and funny. He was truly a wonderful person and will be missed...

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