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Strange Court Theories

We all know that lawyers can be creative, which can be both positive for their clients and sometimes negative for society. There has been no shortage of shall we say unique theories offered lately in courtrooms around the country. In cases involving sports, we have seen a judge in Kentucky hand down an opinion that there is no college football team in the country worse than the Duke Blue Devils.

In Seattle, the City's suit against the Sonics to enforce its lease with the team for the Key Center is now in the hands of the judge. There is little about this trial that has been, ah, traditional, other than the Sonics argument that money would be an appropriate remedy for terminating the lease two years early and moving the team to Oklahoma City. The trial took a bizarre turn on Friday with the revelation of an email from former Senator Slade Gorton, now a member of the law firm representing the City as trial counsel, who was working with a group of local executives including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who had an interest in buying the team if Clay Bennett could be forced to sell it. The conflict of interest revealed on the trial's last day shortly before closing arguments deeply embarrassed the city and its law firm and royally ticked off the judge. How it plays out in the final judgement remains to be seen, but it can't be good for the home team.

The most unique theory I have encountered lately comes to us from Pensacola, Florida and while it's not sports related, it's just too good not to pass it share it with you. An enterprising and creative defense attorney in Pensacola is using Google search data to show jurors that what their neighbors have been searching for in sexual subjects is broader than they might have suspected to demonstrate that the community standards as applied to obscenity should be far broader than alleged by the prosecution. The defense is so novel, in fact, that a questions remains as to whether the judge will allow the evidence to be admitted as evidence. It was presented in a deposition and the prosecution has yet to determine if it would object to its admission.

The search data used in the Pensacola case poses the interesting question: What city's residents are most interested in looking up porn on the Internet? The unexpected answer and dubious honor being awarded to my hometown - the top ten list:

The 10 American Cities Most Likely To Search For Obscene Material

1. Louisville, KY
   
2. Rochester, NY
3. Philadelphia, PA
4. Newark, NJ
5. Los Angeles, CA
6. Irvine, CA
7. Pittsburgh, PA
8. Las Vegas, NV
9. Albany, NY
10. Orlando, FL

I don't know what to make of a list in which Louisville leads LA and Vegas, not to mention the conservative, right wing hot spot of Irvine. It's a list that doesn't lend itself to any easy analysis so just take as it is - Louisville gets to claim the title as the nation's most obscene city.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on June 30, 2008 (boomark / email).