Here is the SAMSA's latest "State Estimates of Nonmedical Use of Prescription Pain Relievers."
The Denver Post hyperventilates:
Six percent of Coloradans said they used prescription...
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SAMSA Releases New Prescription Drug Abuse Data
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Broker Sentenced for Using Fake Verifications to Fool Underwriters
Estrellita "Esther" Garo Miguel, 62, Honolulu, Hawaii, a mortgage broker who operated the business Easy Mortgage, was sentenced to 52 months' imprisonment by Chief United States District Judge Susan Oki Mollway for her operation of a mortgage fraud and money laundering scheme.
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Engaging in Bribery in Utah
It’s probably not too surprising that bribery in Utah is a crime; in fact, it’s a felony to be involved in bribery—either on the offering or receiving side. The Definition of Bribery According to Utah law, you are guilty of bribery (or offering a bribe) if you promise, offer, agree to give—directly or indirectly—any benefit [...]
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Brudney & Baum on Dictionaries in the Rehnquist and Roberts Eras
James J. Brudney (pictured) and Lawrence Baum (Fordham University School of Law and Ohio State University (OSU) - Department of Political Science) have posted Oasis or Mirage: The Supreme Court's Thirst for Dictionaries in the Rehnquist and Roberts Eras on...
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2 Arrested for Murder Outside Las Vegas Convenience Store
Yesterday, two people were arrested on charges of committing the Nevada crime of murder during an altercation outside of a Las Vegas convenient store. The reported murder weapon was a pole. The two suspects are in custody at the Clark County Detention Center. The victim died at the hospital.
The Nevada crime of murder is divided into two degrees: First degree murder is premeditated killing done with malice aforethought or a homicide done in commission of a felony. Second degree murder is extremely reckless killing done without premeditation. A common example is playing Russian Roulette.
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Santa Clarita Valley DUI Arrests Decline for 2nd Straight Year
Deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station revealed that 2012 saw the amount of driving under the influence (DUI) arrests decrease for the second straight year. As reported by Hometownstation.com, the area has seen hundreds fewer DUI arrests over the span of the past two years.
Sheriff's deputies revealed that Santa Clarita Valley saw 660 DUI arrests in 2010, 639 arrests in 2011, and 431 arrests in 2012. Deputies are pleased with the continued decrease in drunk driving and the added safety it brings to the roads, but are continuing to pursue fewer instances and greater enforcement of the law. Police are scheduled to have special DUI operations in effect in the near future during Super Bowl Sunday and St. Patrick's Day, which are known for greater amounts of drunk driving.
While Santa Clarita Valley has seen a major decrease in DUIs, it was not the case for all of Los Angeles County. Holiday drunk driving enforcement throughout the county at the end of 2012 resulted in 2,168 DUI arrests over the span of 17 days, as compared to the 2,433 arrests made during the course of 19 days in 2011.
Under California DUI law, it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol content (BAC) greater than 0.08 percent. Those found guilty of such actions can have their license suspended, spend time in jail, and be ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines.
At The Law Offices of Daniel E. Kann, a Santa Clarita DUI defense lawyer can provide you with the skilled representation needed to uphold your rights and preserve your future. Attorney Kann has dedicated his career to protecting defendants and preventing harsh punishments from harming your personal and professional life. To learn more about how we can aid you, contact us today at (888) 744-7730.
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Disclosure of “Draft” Police Reports in Zimmerman Case is Unusual and Extraordinary
I've been practicing criminal law in Florida for more than 25 years and have represented hundreds of individuals in criminal cases over the years. In almost every case I've demanded discovery of all written statements and reports of law enforcement officers, but never - never - has a “draft” report ever been disclosed in discovery. Now I’m wondering how many “draft” reports have been hidden from defendants in criminal cases in Florida over the years. Surely, there have been other cases where police officers create a “draft” report and then made changes.
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How do I look up my driving record online?
In 2013, you can now get online your Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) Abstract of Driving Record. (ADR) It costs $13.00 and you will need a credit card. If you have a pending DUI charge you will need a...
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Scapple – Another Awesome Product by Literature and Latte
I’ve been beta testing Scapple by Literature & Latte, makers of Scrivener, which is the writing software I use. Let me get to the point. Awesome! Scapple is quite simple. It basically gives you a format to jot down notes and ideas for a book you’re writing. Then it allows you to connect, rearrange, emphasize, [...]
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Third-World Problems
The lawyer representing three of the men charged with the gang rape and murder of a medical student aboard a moving bus in New Delhi has blamed the victims for the assault, saying he has never heard of a “respected lady” being raped in India. (The Age.) It would seem more outrageous if Sharma’s clients [...]
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‘CREATIVE’ CRIMINAL SENTINCING OPTIONS
Let’s start the new year off with something unusual.
There’s a saying, “You do the crime, you do the time.” But sentencing criminal defendants who have either been found guilty after a trial, or who have pled guilty in lieu of a trial, has begun to change in recent years. Yes, usually when sentencing, a trial judge will just use the statutory penalties that are provided. These penalties almost always involve either jail time and/or a financial penalty (fine.) But increasingly, judges are becoming creative in their sentencing, ordering convicted defendants to serve sentences that closely resemble the crime(s) for which they have been convicted. From being forced to hold signs in public telling passersby what they have been convicted of, to leading a donkey through town, sometimes paying one’s debt to society doesn't mean jail time; it means public humiliation. Public humiliation as a criminal court sentencing option has its roots here in Puritan, New England, of course, most notably depicted by Nathaniel Hawthorne in his famous novel, “The Scarlet Letter.”
Here’s just one of these “alternative sentencing options” to start off the new year:
Just a couple of months ago, this past November 2012, a criminal defendant who pled guilty to failing to stop for a school bus while children were getting off the bus was ordered by a Cleveland Ohio judge to stand on a street corner in Cleveland and hold an embarrassing sign, telling passersby and the public what she had been convicted of. As anyone who has ever driven behind a school bus knows, when the bus stops to allow children to get off and on the bus, drivers are required to stop behind the bus and not attempt to pass it in any way. This traffic law is pretty much universal in any state in the U.S.
It seems Shena Hardin, 32, had a different idea: She was accused by police of actually driving up on the sidewalk to pass the bus, where school kids were getting on and off the bus , and she pled guilty in court to the charge. Cleveland Municipal Judge Pinkey Carr ordered Shena Hardin, 32 to stand on a street corner for two days during rush hour traffic, holding a sign that said, "ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD DRIVE ON THE SIDEWALK TO AVOID A SCHOOL BUS." The judge also suspended Hardin's driver’s license for 30 days and ordered her to pay $250 in court costs. In imposing the sentence, Judge Carr commented that she hoped the creative sentence would serve as a warning to other drivers to obey the laws concerning the safety of school buses.
The story doesn’t end there, though. News film crews showed that Hardin was spending her time on the street corner texting and casually talking on her cell phone, not displaying an ounce of remorse. Irked by Hardin's apparent arrogance, the judge reportedly took the even more unusual step of standing on the corner to monitor that Harden held the sign up for all passersby and motorists to clearly see.
As a Dedham, Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer, I'm not yet sure whether this approach is effective at deterring repeat offenders, but it’s certainly creative.
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Prostitution bill unveiled at Las Vegas sex trafficking summit
1-9-2013 Arizona:
The signs that her youngest daughter was a prostitute couldn't have been more obvious, although she didn't make the connection at the time.
There was the seductive way she...
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Utah Sheriff Strikes Back At Mug-Shot Websites
1-10-2013 Utah:
Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder has become the latest lawman in the country to stop the practice of displaying mug shots online.
Winder says booking photos are being...
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SUPREME COURT HOLDS WITHDRAWAL FROM A CONSPIRACY REQUIRES AN AFFIRMATIVE ACT
Calvin Smith was charged along with 16 others in a 156 count indictment alleging drug and RICO conspiracies in Washington D. C. He was charged in the conspiracy counts and with committing four murders. He appealed the conspiracy counts claiming that he left the conspiracy over five years prior to the indictment and therefore the statute of limitations had run and the convictions must be reversed.
It is clear that he did not participate in the conspiracy during the six year period prior to the indictment. He was in prison.
But the Supreme Court in Smith v. United States ruled today that lack of participation is insufficient to prove withdrawal from a conspiracy. Withdrawal requires “affirmative acts inconsistent with the goals of the conspiracy.” Furthermore, one can only withdraw from a conspiracy by giving notice to his/her co-conspirators of his/her unequivocal withdrawal. A person remains responsible for acts committed by the conspiracy prior to withdrawal as long as those acts occurred within the statute of limitations, i.e. within a five year period ending with the indictment.
Withdrawal is an affirmative defense and unlike evidence of a crime in which the burden is on the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, the burden is on the defendant to prove the existence of an affirmative defense but it must only be proven by a preponderance of the evidence standard. That means that there is more evidence of the existence of the affirmative defense than there is evidence against the existence of the affirmative defense. Still it is a heavy burden to switch the burden of proof from the prosecution to the defendant.
The jury, after being correctly instructed on the law, found Smith guilty of the two conspiracy counts. Since the jury instruction properly defined the requirements for withdrawal from a conspiracy and the burden of proof, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction.
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CA - Ruling finds DA's right-hand man committed misconduct
Jay BoyarskyOriginal Article12/28/2012By Tracey KaplanSAN JOSE - In a scathing opinion (PDF) published Thursday, a state appellate court reversed a judgment against a felon accused of being a sexually violent predator, saying the prosecutor handling the case -- now District Attorney Jeff Rosen's right-hand man -- engaged in a "pervasive pattern'' of misconduct.
The misconduct finding against Chief Assistant District Attorney Jay Boyarsky is the first black mark against Rosen's administration since he took office two years ago on an ethics platform and appointed Boyarsky as his top assistant.
Rosen handled the situation Thursday with the same aplomb he demonstrated as a homicide prosecutor to defuse potential courtroom crises. Boyarsky, who is also Rosen's best friend, tried the case when he was a line prosecutor before Rosen came into office.
"We respect the court's decision," Rosen said. "Any prosecutor in my office may err, and when we do, we learn from it and improve."
The ruling, written by Conrad Rushing, the presiding judge of the 6th District Court of Appeal, stems from a civil court hearing in Santa Clara County in which [name withheld] was involuntarily committed to a state mental hospital on the grounds that he was a sexually violent predator.
Boyarsky erred by asking improper questions of the witnesses that elicited inflammatory answers and by making improper arguments to the jury, Rushing wrote. For instance, Boyarsky implied without offering any evidence that [name withheld] had molested other boys. The prosecutor also essentially asked jurors what their friends and family would think of them if they found [name withheld] wasn't a predator.
"This is not a case in which the prosecutor engaged in a few minor incidents of improper conduct," Rushing wrote. "Rather, the prosecutor engaged in a pervasive pattern of inappropriate questions, comment and argument throughout the entire trial."
Boyarsky said he accepts the court's ruling about his conduct, though he made his arguments in "good faith."
"Based on the court's opinion, if I had it to do over again," he said, "I would make my arguments differently."
Although the ruling reverses the involuntary civil commitment order, [name withheld] will remain at Coalinga State Hospital while the case is pending. Rosen noted [name withheld] has a "serious history of sexually preying on young teenagers," and said his office will try him again if doctors conclude he is a predator. Under another scenario, the state Attorney General's Office could appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, which could strike down the appellate decision, allowing the involuntary commitment to a mental hospital to stand.- So are you saying you will try him twice for the same crime? Isn't that double jeopardy?
The case dates back to 1994, when [name withheld] pleaded guilty to sodomy with a minor under 14, sodomy with a minor under 18 and oral copulation where the victim is unable to resist due to an intoxicating substance. He was sentenced to 17 years and eight months in prison.
Shortly before he was to be released, the DA's Office sought to have him involuntarily committed to a state mental hospital on the grounds he was a sexually violent predator. The first attempt resulted in a mistrial when the jury voted 11-1 in favor of finding he was a predator. The second attempt, by now-disgraced former prosecutor Ben Field, was also reversed on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.
To qualify [name withheld] as a predator, Boyarsky had to show he had "a diagnosable mental disorder that predisposes him to sexual violence.''
Two of the two state doctors testifying for Boyarsky said [name withheld] has hebephilia, a sexual attraction to teenage boys who have attained puberty. However, hebephilia is not classified as a mental illness, Rushing noted. One of the doctors also testified that the defendant was not a pedophile and was not aroused by force or violence, and that the only reason his prior crimes were considered nonconsensual was because the victims were minors who could not legally consent.
Rushing said that [name withheld] presented a "vigorous defense," including evidence that he had spent the last 15 years while incarcerated seeking every voluntary treatment available. The justice also criticized the trial judge, Alfonso Fernandez, for overruling all of the many "well-taken'' objections made by [name withheld] s defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender Patrick Hoopes.
Dallas Sacher, director of the Sixth District Appellate Program, which handled the appeal, praised the ruling.
"Nobody in their right mind wants people on the street doing this to boys," Sacher said. "But creating a make-believe genre of crazy people isn't right either. The ends do not justify the means."
A spokesman for the Attorney General said the office is reviewing the opinion and hasn't decided whether to appeal it to the state Supreme Court.
"We argued in our appellate court brief that none of the cited instances constituted prosecutorial misconduct and reversal was not required because it is not 'reasonably probable that a result more favorable to the defendant would have occurred' absent the misconduct."© 2006-2012 | Sex Offender Issues
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UT - Utah Sheriff Strikes Back At Mug-Shot Websites
Original Article01/09/2013SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder has become the latest lawman in the country to stop the practice of displaying mug shots online.- Good, it's about time all police departments stop doing this, for the same reason, exploitation. Offendex.com comes to mind.
Winder says booking photos are being exploited by websites for monetary gain — they charge suspects high prices for removing their mug shots and sometimes fail to follow through.
Winder has removed booking photos from his metro jail’s online roster.
The practice has former inmates saying they are paying twice for their crimes. They say it does no good to pay one website operator for the removal of a mug shot when so many are trafficking in the same booking photos.
Utah County responded to the problem by shrinking the size of its online mug shots to prevent them from being easily duplicated on the Web.© 2006-2012 | Sex Offender Issues
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WI - Former police chief (Gary Wayerski) sentenced to prison for sexual encounters with teens he was "mentoring!"
Gary WayerskiOriginal Article01/09/2013By Jerry GallagherDunn County (WQOW) - Wheeler's ex-police chief is going to prison for a long time.
On Wednesday, Gary Wayerski was sentenced to 14 years behind bars. He was convicted of a range of crimes related to sexual assault. He had been accused of having dozens of sexual encounters with two teens he was mentoring.
Wayerski was charged in 2011 when he was still police chief of the Dunn County village. He was fired a few months later.
Along with prison time, Wayerski was also given 16 years of extended supervision.© 2006-2012 | Sex Offender Issues
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IN - New law enforcement tool finds sex offenders at local malls (Shopping sex offenders? Oh the horror!)
Original ArticleOMG, sex offenders are shopping, oh the horror!01/09/2013By Kent Erdahl
For years, online registries have allowed people to search for sex offenders near their home, but now the Marion County Sheriff’s Department is using new technology to see where sex and other violent offenders go when they’re not at home.
A $500,000 federal grant has enabled the sheriff’s department to equip four vehicles with highly sensitive cameras that capture and process license plate information. The grant also funds overtime needed to patrol high traffic areas like schools, parks and malls.
“Whenever we pass by a vehicle it will beep to me,” said CPL Brad Allen, pointing to the computer in his Marion County Sheriff’s Department cruiser. “That means that it’s been read.”
Allen showed Fox59 how the cameras work even while driving at high speeds. They also run license plate information through law enforcement databases in real time, checking for expired licenses plates, outstanding warrants and registered sex offenders.
“It’s helped out tremendously,” Allen said.
“One plate reader device has the capability of reading up to 100 license plates per minute,” said Captain Michael Hubbs with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department. “So I don’t know if you could have enough man power to ever do that.”
During a special holiday shopping enforcement in December, deputies patrolling mall areas used the cameras to find cars belonging to 73 registered six offenders along with 42 people wanted on warrants associated with vehicles. The new technology also led directly to one felony arrest for a sex offender violation.- OMG, shopping sex offenders, everybody run to the hills!
Hubbs said that the discrepancy between sex offenders and arrests is because some may not be barred from malls. Still, he said the technology allows law enforcement to keep tabs on them and that even one arrest is significant.
“I’d say absolutely it’s worth it because the arrest speaks for itself,” said Captain Hubbs. “Who knows what that person could have been up to?”- So one arrest is worth spending $500,000 on?
For Corporal Allen, it’s helping him keep better tabs on the 1,500 registered sex offenders in Marion County every single day.
“I check all the schools to make sure that there’s no sex offenders there,” Allen said.© 2006-2012 | Sex Offender Issues
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Vergewaltigung: Indische Rechtsanwälte weigern sich Vergewaltiger zu verteidigen
Momentan sorgt eine tödlich ausgegangene Vergewaltigung in Indien für viel Aufsehen. Sechs festgenommene Männer sollen in einem Bus eine 23-jährige Studentin so brutal vergewaltigt haben, dass sie kurze Zeit später an den Folgen verstarb. Nun soll den Männern vor einem Schnellgericht der Prozess gemacht werden. Ihnen droht die Todesstrafe. Die rund 2500 am Gericht . . . → Read More: Vergewaltigung: Indische Rechtsanwälte weigern sich Vergewaltiger zu verteidigenÄhnliche Beiträge:Neuer Vergewaltigungsvorwurf gegen Dominique Strauss-KahnFahndung per Facebook nach mutmaßlichem VergewaltigerFreispruch nach VergewaltigungsvorwurfVergewaltigung auf öffentlicher ToiletteVergewaltigung: Aussage gegen Aussage
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Betrug: 20-Jähriger soll mit geklauten Kreditkartendaten im Internet eingekauft haben
Gegen einen 20-Jährigen hat die Staatsanwaltschaft Osnabrück die Anklage wegen gewerbsmäßigen Betrugs erhoben. Er soll sich in Internetforen Daten von Kreditkarteninhabern besorgt haben. Mit diesen Daten bestellte er dann im Internet diverse Waren. Dadurch kam es zu einigen Lieferungen von hochwertigen Elektroartikeln an Packstationen oder leerstehenden Häusern. Insgesamt soll Ware im Werte von 22.000 . . . → Read More: Betrug: 20-Jähriger soll mit geklauten Kreditkartendaten im Internet eingekauft habenÄhnliche Beiträge:Mutmaßlicher Millionenbetrug mit MedikamentenBetrug: Ermittlungen gegen vier junge Männer wegen…Computerbetrug mit Skimming – 850.000 EUR BeuteStrafverteidigung: Freispruch im BetrugsprozessFreiheitsstrafe: Betrug, Untreue und Steuerhinterziehung
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