| 11/11/08 9:55 PM All from today's AP newswire: Man
calls cops but leaves pot pipe in plain sight AP
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - A 28-year-old man reporting a burglary faces drug charges
after responding officers say they found a marijuana pipe in his bedroom. A
criminal complaint filed Tuesday said officers saw the pipe in plain view in
Justin Luecke's bedroom and found marijuana stems and seeds in the living
room. Police
say robber was really caught 'red handed' AP
LAWRENCE, Mass. - Police in Massachusetts say they caught a bank robber red
handed — literally. On Monday, a man gave tellers a note threatening that he had
a gun at a Sovereign Bank branch in Lawrence. Bank employees managed to hide a
dye pack in the cash the robber stole. Police
say man sped away after handing over ID AP
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - Police said it wasn't the most well-thoughtout escape.
They say a man handed over his license and registration at a sobriety checkpoint
during the weekend, then peeled out and sped away, almost hitting an
officer. Ark.
police: Burglars sold silver ingot for $30 AP BENTONVILLE, Ark. - The proprietor of a metal recycling business was
suspicious of the group of young people who wanted to sell him a 62.5-pound
chunk of metal, so he convinced them it was only lead and gave them $30 for it.
It was really a silver ingot — worth $15,000. And the metals dealer called
police. Littering
bust lands man in jail on drug charges AP
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Police said a man likely wishes he never threw trash on
a highway. That's because littering wasn't the only charge filed against him.
The man, 42, faces drug charges after deputies seized six pounds of
methamphetamine from his vehicle.
11/6/08 11:52 PM Victim drives sleeping rapist to police station Wed Nov 5, 10:15 AM ET
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand rape victim drove her rapist to a police station when he fell asleep in his car after assaulting the woman, local media reported on Wednesday.
Teen arrested breaking into police station Mon Nov 3, 12:32 PM ET
SYDNEY (Reuters) - The long arm of the law didn't have to reach too far to arrest one Australian teen-ager, who was caught breaking into a police station in the early hours of Monday.
Alleged drunk driver thinks he's driving his car Thu Nov 6, 4:23 AM ET AP
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - A North Pole man was surprised when police accused him of stealing a car from a gentlemen's club in Fairbanks.
11/2/08 12:40 AM 10th Circuit Drops Judicial Conduct Probe of Former Federal Judge
The National Law Journal
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dropped its judicial
conduct investigation of U.S. District Judge Edward W. Nottingham of
the District of Colorado, who was accused of soliciting prostitutes
and spending thousands of dollars at a topless nightclub. Nottingham,
who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, resigned on
Wednesday. The next day, Chief Judge Robert H. Henry dropped the
investigation, stating that the complaints filed against the judge
were "moot," given his resignation.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202425690409
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| Federal judge in Colo. resigns amid investigation AP - Tue Oct 21, 6:34 PM ET
DENVER - The federal judge who oversaw the insider trading trial of former Qwest Communications CEO Joe Nacchio is resigning as complaints of judicial misconduct are investigated. Edward W. Nottingham, the chief federal district judge in Colorado ceased his judicial duties immediately and his resignation will be effective Oct. 29, according to a statement Tuesday posted on the Web site of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The statement said multiple complaints of misconduct were being investigated by the circuit's judicial council. It did not elaborate. Judge Wiley Y. Daniel succeeds Nottingham as chief judge. | 10/28/08 10:29 PM
The Legal Intelligencer
Submitting a pleading riddled with typos and other errors has cost an attorney some big bucks. A federal judge spent three pages describing the errors, and ultimately slashed the $180,000 in requested fees to about $26,000. The attorney said in an interview that he relies too heavily on spell-checking software and that he accidentally filed an unproofed draft while using an electronic filing system. Among the misspellings flagged by the judge: "plaintf," "attoreys," "reasonbale" and "Ubited States."
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202425104538 10/6/08 11:26 PM An evolving trend is to let jurors participate in trials. Some stories on this change:
From 2000:
From American Lawyer Media
"What? A jury ask someone on the stand questions? Unbelievable. But in a case of first impression, two judges of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved the practice of letting jurors in criminal cases submit questions for witnesses."
Details:
http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/nwlink.cgi?ACG=ZZZ25XRITCC
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From 2003:
JURORS MAY QUESTION WITNESSES, COURT SAYS
Associated Press
Trial courts can let jurors question witnesses, the Ohio Supreme Court
said Wednesday in a unanimous ruling. A trial judge may accept written
questions from jurors and pass them on to witnesses, without infringing
on defendants' rights, the high court said. "The practice of allowing
jurors to question witnesses provides for a two-way communication
through which jurors can more effectively fulfill their fundamental
role as fact finders," wrote Chief Justice Thomas Moyer.
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/1110/6-11-2003/20030611080006_16.html
Read The Opinion (State v. Fisher)
http://www.ohlawyersweekly.com/archives/oh/opin/sup/2761.htm
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From 2005:
|
| Colo. Court Considers Juror Questions AP - Sat Apr 30, 4:11 PM ET
DENVER - The relatively new practice of allowing jurors to submit questions for witnesses during criminal and civil trials, upheld elsewhere in the country in federal courts, is facing a new legal test before Colorado's highest court. |
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When Jurors Run the Show New Jersey Law Journal Try to imagine defense counsel's dilemma as a plaintiff's expert, answering jurors' questions, takes over the trial. The witness proceeds to expound, lecture and even stride the courtroom floor -- sometimes even straying from his area of expertise. Does the defense keep silent? Or object and thereby risk alienating the jurors? It's a quandary posed by the practice -- as seen in the latest New Jersey Vioxx trial -- of allowing juror questions, and there seem to be few guidelines to resolve it. http://wwwlaw.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1143725006150
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And from this past week:
Study: Juror Questions, Limits on Lawyer Presentations Enhance Jury Trial Process The National Law Journal A 7th Circuit Bar Association study that tested alternative trial concepts, including allowing jurors to ask questions of witnesses during trials and limiting presentations by lawyers, generally showed that the new techniques enhanced the jury trial process. The study took into account survey results from 434 jurors, 86 lawyers and 22 federal trial judges who were involved in 50 civil jury trials. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202424834469
10/2/08 11:17 PM Client's 'Frivolous' Motion in Divorce Case Leads to Attorney Sanction New York Law Journal A judge has taken an attorney to task for standing "blindly behind" a matrimonial client's recusal motion and her "fifty-three page diatribe" against the court for rejecting her bid to relocate to Texas with her children. New York Supreme Court Justice Lewis J. Lubell hit the lawyer with a $2,500 sanction and ordered the client to pay some $7,200 in attorney fees. In a separate reply affidavit cited by the court, the client compared the proceedings before Lubell to "a gang rape ... by a bunch of lawyers." http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202424744136 10/1/08 7:27 AM Studios Sue to Bar a DVD Copying Program
New York Times
By BRAD STONE Six major movie studios sued RealNetworks, the Seattle-based digital media company, on Tuesday over its new $30 software program
Movie Studios, RealNetworks Sue Each Other In DVD-Copying Dispute
InformationWeek
RealDVD software lets people rent DVDs from a legitimate video-rental store and build a library of copied movies without ever buying a DVD.
MPAA sues Real Networks over RealDVD – and has reason to be upset
TG Daily
By Wolfgang Gruener Opinion – Real Networks and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have filed dueling lawsuits in US courts
9/28/08 11:13 PM Italy Makes Blogging A 2 Year Jailable Offense
A Sicilian judge ruled earlier this year that blogging, under Italian law, is the same as publishing an unregistered newspaper. In Italy, publishing an unregistered newspaper is a crime of "stampa clandestina," and is punishable by large fines and/or jail. And so down went the first blogger. He was noticed because he wrote unkind things about the Italian government. A horrible legal precedent and basis for the ruling. But by registering a blog, the blog would then be subject to all laws governing newspaper publishing which means the blogger could no longer freely write his or her thoughts. And so it would no longer be a blog. And especially there would be no right to criticize the government.
Since the ruling, another blogger has been taken down. Apparently there are those in the Italian government who have decided to run with this opportunity.
Read about this in The Register (UK) 26-Sep-08
Click here for a full story on this
(The above information is courtesy of the Bonehead of the Week newsletter <BoneheadOfTheDayAward@yahoogroups.com>) 9/25/08 9:18 PM Charge dropped against man accused of passing gas AP - Thu Sep 25, 5:06 PM ET
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A West Virginia man accused of passing gas and fanning it toward a police officer no longer faces a battery charge. The Kanawha County prosecutor's office requested that the charge be dropped against 34-year-old Jose Cruz. |