Legal Commentary

ABC News Anchor in Washington Fired Over Alleged Partisan Comments and Fight With News Director

Posted on September 20, 2010
This weekend WJLA-TV announced that it had fired veteran anchorman Doug McKelway for a verbal confrontation this summer with the station’s news director. McKelway is a longtime journalist in the Capitol and his termination raised questions about the limits on fair commentary for anchors in political coverage...

Extremists in Gaza Burn ?Crazy Water? Park For Allowing The Mixing of Men and Women

Posted on September 20, 2010
In what is believed to be the action of Hamas gunmen, the popular “Crazy Water” park in Gaza was burned down by 25 assailants who beat the security guards before torching the popular entertainment site. The Hamas government in Gaza shutdown the park on permit issues, but had previously cracked down on the site for [...

Poll: Americans More Supportive of Torture ? Though Still a Minority

Posted on September 20, 2010
For civil libertarians, the decision by President Obama to bar the prosecution of Bush officials for the torture program was always a flagrant choice of politics over principle. Now a poll ratifies that decision. A poll commissioned by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that Americans are accepting torture in greater numbers...

Montana GOP Reaffirms Position on Criminalizing Homosexuality

Posted on September 19, 2010
The Montana Republican Party has adopted its official platform, which contains a standout provision: a call to criminalize homosexuality. The party has long demanded the criminalization of homosexuality but its decision to retain the policy has been something of a shocker, including for some Republicans...

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Teen Who Killed Dog in Home Invasion Given 20 Years in Jail

Posted on September 19, 2010
I saw this story out of Grand Rapids, Michigan of a 15-year-old boy who was sentenced to 20 years for invading a home and killing a dog. Jonathan Castelan said that when he broke into the home, the family’s 8-pound dachhound bit him and he killed it with a hammer...

We Got Your Back . . .

Posted on September 19, 2010
This young man has friends in low places . . . This is why man and dog are natural allies.

Is Christine O?Donnell A Failed Witch?

Posted on September 19, 2010
That seems to be the thrust of reports over Christine O’Donnell’s past references to dabbling in witchcraft before she became the Republican nominee for Governor of Delaware. You have to love this country. Who needs an immigration debate when Delaware if asking whether one of its major candidates “is or was ever a practicing witch?” [...

Fake Florida Doctor Arrested After Using ?Fix-a-Flat? to Augment Woman?s Buttock

Posted on September 19, 2010
Florida police have arrested faux doctor Ana Josefa Sevilla in one of the growing number of cases involving unlicensed cosmetic operations. In this case, Servilla is accused of using “Fix-a-Flat” aerosol instead of Botox. In one of the cases under investigation, a woman was actually approached in a parking lot with an offer of injections [...

English Woman Sentenced to Year in Jail For False Rape Allegation

Posted on September 18, 2010
Elizabeth Wilkinson, 21, has been sentenced to a year in jail after ruining a man’s life with a false rape allegation after he spurned her advances. Wilkinson resides in Foulridge, England, and had had a consensual relationship with David Lord, 23, and decided to make the rape allegation after he told her that he did [...

Kettle Calling the Pot Black: Alcohol Lobby Pumps Money Into Anti-Pot Legalization Campaign

Posted on September 18, 2010
California campaign finance disclosures reportedly show that the campaign to defeat marijuana legalization is being funded in part by the alcohol industry which does not relish the idea of joints replacing shots as intoxicants of choice. The California Beer and Beverage Distributors contributed $10,000 to the No on Prop...

Dirty Politics: New York GOP Nominee for Governor Sends Citizens Garbage Scented Mail

Posted on September 18, 2010
Something stinks in the campaign of New York GOP Senatorial nominee Carl Paladino. Over 200,000 citizens received a mailer that Paladino intentionally scented with a “landfill” odor in his campaign against Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo. Paladino felt that the landfill laced mailers were are perfect way to add another sense to photos of seven Democrats [...

Note to Self: Mask First, Robbery Second

Posted on September 17, 2010
Jamie Carlos Hernandez, 41, may have lost that note to self reading “mask first, robbery second.” The Michigan man put on his son’s Darth Vader mask to conceal his identity but waited to put it on after he entered the store and willing being filmed by security cameras...

Canadian Woman Admits to Faking Acid Attack

Posted on September 17, 2010
Police in Vancouver, Washington has found the culprit in the horrific acid attack of a woman — it was the woman herself. Bethany Storro has admitted that she did it to herself. The police were highly suspicious, particularly over the splash pattern and the fact that it didn?t run down Storro?s neck...

PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL

Posted on September 17, 2010
The Senate trial for United States District Court Judge Thomas Porteous has been suspended for the the Jewish holiday. It will resume on Tuesday. This testimony on Tuesday will continue to discuss both Article III and Article IV Porteous – Motion to Dismiss Article III Judge G...

PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL ? DAY FOUR

Posted on September 16, 2010
The fourth day of the Senate trial for United States District Court Judge Thomas Porteous starts today. Yesterday, we called Timmy Porteous, son of Judge Porteous and one of the judges who pleaded guilty in the Wrinkled Robe investigation. The latter was a House witness who was dropped at the end of their case in [...

PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL ? DAY THREE

Posted on September 15, 2010
The third day of the Senate trial for United States District Court Judge Thomas Porteous starts today. The witnesses include a former judge and former prosecutor. We are likely to start our case on Wednesday . . . Much of this testimony will center on Article III of the impeachment...

Who Is A Citizen?

Posted on September 14, 2010
Here is today’s column in USA Today giving a bit of constitutional and historical context for the raging debate over illegal immigration. The 14th Amendment doesn’t answer this question, as today’s immigration debate exposes unsettled business...

PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL ? DAY TWO

Posted on September 14, 2010
The second day of the Senate trial for United States District Court Judge Thomas Porteous starts today. The witness list include Lori and Louis Marcotte . . . Much of this testimony will center on Article II of the impeachment. I have attached our motions to dismiss Article Two and our general summary if you [...

THE PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL ? DAY ONE

Posted on September 13, 2010
The Senate trial for United States District Court Judge Thomas Porteous begins today at 8 a.m. Today we will hear opening statements and the testimony of Robert Creely, Jake Amato, Joe Mole, and others. Much of this testimony will center on Article I of the impeachment...

PORTEOUS TRIAL ? OPENING STATEMENT

Posted on September 13, 2010
We have completed the opening statements. While I deviated a bit in presentation, here is the written opening statement. Now back to the action . . . Opening Statement.Porteous.final

Breakfast of Champions

Posted on September 12, 2010
Dedicated to the Porteous defense team which is currently running on a mix of pure caffeine and adrenaline. Pick your faces out of the cereal bowls and back to work!

Hello, Dave: Scientists Develop Robot With Ability to Deceive Humans

Posted on September 12, 2010
And so it begins. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have taught robots for the first time who to deceive humans. Didn’t we learn anything from Stanley Kubrick?s 2001: A Space Odyssey? The team implanted computer algorithms that lets a robot ?decide? whether it should deceive a human or another robot and gives it [...

THE PORTEOUS IMPEACHMENT CASE STARTS MONDAY

Posted on September 12, 2010
The Senate trial for United States District Court Judge Thomas Porteous begins Monday morning. I will be therefore out of pocket for the coming week and part of next week. Unfortunately, that means that postings will be extremely limited but I expect the denizens of this blog to post stories as comments in my absence...

Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell Policy Found Unconstitutional

Posted on September 11, 2010
U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips in California has found the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to be unconstitutional under the 1st Amendment and due process clause. She has informed the Obama Administration, which is defending the policy, that she intends to issue an injunction...

German Leader Suggests Poland Partially Responsible for Nazi Invasion

Posted on September 11, 2010
A top party leader and associate of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under fire this week for arguing that Poland may have been as responsible as Hitler for the outbreak of World War II. Erika Steinbach said Poland had mobilized its troops months before the Nazis invaded in September 1939...

Former Officer Drinks, Drives, Kills Man, Flees Scene, and Then Orchestrates Cover-up . . . Receives One to Two Years in Jail

Posted on September 11, 2010
We previously followed the case of former Officer Donnie Breeden, 39, who was accused of killing David Hall in a hit and run and then telling friends “I’m a cop. I can’t go to jail.” Well, he will but only for one to two years...

North Carolina Sheriffs Demand Access To State Records on Citizen Prescriptions

Posted on September 10, 2010
Sheriffs in North Carolina are demanding access to state computer records identifying anyone in the state with prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other controlled substances. The obvious intrusion into the privacy of citizens is being justified as potentially allowing police to make more drug arrests...

Former Austin Police Officer Given Probation for Giving Drugs, Money, and Wife?s Possessions to Prostitutes

Posted on September 10, 2010
Former Austin police officer Scott Lando received a generous sentence from visiting state District Judge Fred Moore after his conviction for giving drugs, money, and even possessions of his wife to prostitutes for sex. Lando faced two years in prison but was given probation by Moore who said that he was punished enough by leaving [...

For Whom the Bell Tolls: City Silences Bell in 104-Year-Old Gothic Church

Posted on September 10, 2010
St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church is being sued. The complaint targets the famous bell of the 104-year-old Gothic church which has rung for prayers, marriages, and other occasions for generations. Most residents associated the 5,000-pound bronze bell with their community but a resident has filed a complaint that silenced the bell under a [...

Son Arrested After ?Accidentally? Running Over Mother ? Allegedly Three Times

Posted on September 10, 2010
Steven Frederick Molin, 58, insists it was a simple accident after his mother, Emily Belle Molin, 85, fell out of his moving car. Police, however, are skeptical and believe that Molin pushed his mother out of the car moving at 40 mph and then ran her over, backed up, ran over her again, and then [...

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