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Eliot Sptizer’s Alleged Assault Victim, Svetlana Zakharova, Arrested For Attempted Extortion: Understanding New York Blackmail Law

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Eliot Spitzer, the onetime New York State Governor and Attorney General, has once again found himself immersed in controversy. According to reports, however, the new tabloid fodder is not centered around alleged wrongdoing on the part of Client 9, but his alleged Attempted Extortion and Blackmail by Svetlana Zahkharova, aka, Svetlana Travis. More specifically, Zahkharova (Travis) had claimed that Spitzer met her in February 2016 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City where he choked and pushed her inside one of the rooms. Although merely speculation, it was reported that Travis worked as a high end Russian call girl and escort for as much as $5,000.00 a night. Despite Travis’ claims, after making the report to the police she refused to cooperate and returned to Russia. At some point she made financial demands of Spitzer who in turn initiated a civil suit against Travis only later dropping it. Although I am not privy to the NYPD’s and Manhattan District Attorney’s…

Supreme Court’s Short, Sleepy and Conflicted Term

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In the LA Times, Mike Sacks writes about the new term of the Supreme Court with one justice down. He assumes, with good reason, that the Court has avoided taking on “blockbuster” cases because of the Senate’s intransigence in doing its job. “Would scores of people camp out on the Supreme Court sidewalk to see that argument?” That’s the question that separates sleepy SCOTUS terms from the seismic ones. And this new term’s docket, so far, is a snoozer. Yet I come to celebrate, not condemn, this development. While it may be because every term of Court isn’t earth-shattering, Sacks writes that it’s also to avoid 4-4 deadlocks in ideologically-bounded cases. While the court last term managed to salvage narrow unanimity in a contraceptive mandate case that equally divided the justices by party line at oral argument, the eight members were not so successful in four other cases, including the 4-4 deadlock that left in place a…

"Slave Narratives and the Sentencing Court"

To Win The Presidency, Sacrifice Law

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The Texas Tornado, Mark Bennett made a sadly ironic, yet funny, twit: Today’s Twitter Instant Law Degree Specialty is in criminal-defense ethics. The renewed attacks on Hillary Clinton (as well as Tim Kaine) for having defended the accused are making their rounds again, being argued as if there was any issue of impropriety involved. There’s not. There is no legitimate argument on this issue. For some time, Hillary Clinton’s critics have been citing her defense of a 1975 rape case to attack her, and her defenders have been absolving her of any blame. Kathy Shelton — the victim1 in the case — has openly condemned Clinton and asserted that Clinton gratuitously attacked her, and others have criticized Clinton’s description of the case from a recorded interview in the 1980s. The criticisms are (mostly) wrong and the defenses are (mostly) right. You can question Clinton’s post-representation demeanor, but there is nothing, absolutely…

Trinkner et al. on Police Behavior and Bounded Authority

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Rick Trinkner, Jonathan Jackson and Tom Tyler (Arizona State University, London School of Economics & Political Science - Department of Methodology and Yale University - Law School) have posted Expanding ‘Appropriate’ Police Behavior Beyond Procedural Justice: Bounded Authority & the...

Fascinating SCOTUS per curiam summary opinion stresses that Eighth Amendment still limits victim testimony in capital cases

Man Charged Following Alleged Fatal Drunk Driving Accident in Mattapan

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According to CBS Boston Local, a 39-year-old man has been arrested following his involvement in a Mattapan car accident that resulted in the death of a 46-year-old woman.  Prosecutors have said the suspect was driving at a high rate of speed when he came upon the victim who was standing in the crosswalk trying to make her way across the road. Prosecutors have further said the defendant hit the victim while she was in the crosswalk.  After allegedly hitting the victim, the driver stopped very briefly and then fled the scene of what turned out to be a fatal drunk driving accident.The police put out a BOLO (be on the lookout) for the suspect, but he later turned himself in to authorities to take responsibility for allegedly hitting the woman and killing her. One of the witnesses to this accident had been riding a motorized scooter and had a GoPro camera running at the time.  Prosecutors have said that at least part of the fatal Mattapan drunk driving accident was…

Doe v. Brown University: In Narrow Decision, Federal Court Finds Brown Failed to Follow its Policy on Sexual Misconduct Adjudications

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I previously wrote about a Massachusetts federal district court decision that was groundbreaking because it tackled the question of whether a private university’s sexual misconduct investigation and disciplinary procedure was fundamentally fair, and concluded that it was not. Last week another local federal court weighed in on the college sexual misconduct issue and found in favor of the accused student, but went in a distinctly different legal direction. John Doe v. Brown University is one of the few cases on this issue to proceed all the way to trial. The case arose out of a November 2014 sexual encounter between John Doe and Ann Roe. Roe complained about the incident in November 2015, and the case was heard by Brown in 2016. Notably, in fall 2015 Brown adopted a new Title IX policy that contained Brown’s first definition of consent, and a new process for handling sexual misconduct cases. While Brown informed its investigator and panel that the case against Doe…

OVI Charges Amended After A Sobriety Checkpoint In Columbus

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When a former United States Marine was recently stopped at a sobriety checkpoint in Columbus, the police officers’ sobriety tests determined that he was above the legal limit and he found himself charged with an OVI. Because the man was now facing the grim prospect of a very lengthy license suspension, probation, and very steep [...]The post OVI Charges Amended After A Sobriety Checkpoint In Columbus appeared first on Columbus Criminal Attorney.

SANDRA JAGGARD HAS PASSED AWAY

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Assistant Attorney General Sandra Jaggard, known for her working defending criminal convictions, passed away Tuesday, at the way too young age of 51. David Ovalle and the Miami Herald have the obit here. Ms. Jaggard was mostly unknown to us, but she was well respected, and her work upholding the most serious of convictions and her advocacy on behalf of victims and their survivors is something that the citizens of this state will miss.Court is closed tomorrow for the Jewish day of atonement. Site Feed

"Despite Ken Thompson’s Short Stint as Brooklyn Prosecutor, Agenda May Endure"

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From The New York Times: Though he could be a prickly manager and was recently fined for using taxpayer money to buy his daily meals, Mr. Thompson instinctively grasped the broader implications of his work, Ms. Reiss and others said,...

Svetlana Zakharova Extortion and Blackmail Update: Prosecutors Allege $400,000 Schemed from Spitzer and a Potential Unrelated Second Victim

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Yes, when it rains it pours. No, not just pours, but it comes down in hail like driving sheets of rain. From catching a flight out of Russia to the United States expecting to traipse around Gotham before heading elsewhere to getting whisked away in handcuffs by the NYPD to the “Tombs” of Manhattan Central Booking, Svetlana Zakharova is arguably soaked to her core. What was initially described by the media as an attempt to extort approximately $50,000 from Eliot Spitzer, was in fact an actual and completed Grand Larceny by Extortion. According to the allegations leveled by a Bronx prosecutor serving as a special prosecutor on behalf of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Zahkarova succeeded in scaring the heck out of Client 9 to the point that he paid his alleged extorter $400,000. Armed with the new allegations provided at Zakharova’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, the presiding judge set bail to the tune of $1 million. Right or…

How a DWI Conviction in New Jersey Could Affect Your International Travel Plans

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A conviction for driving while intoxicated (DWI) can have an impact far beyond any penalties imposed by a court. New Jersey’s DWI statute prescribes penalties that can include fines, a license suspension, the use of an ignition interlock device, and jail time. Laws at both the state and federal levels may impose restrictions, such as ineligibility for certain licenses or permits. A New Jersey DWI conviction may also affect a person’s ability to travel abroad. Canada, to name just one example, may bar someone from entering that country if they have one or more DWI convictions. This is a lesser-known consequence, but it could be an important factor to consider during the DWI prosecution process. Each country’s immigration laws define who may enter the country and under which circumstances. People who want to visit a particular country must obtain that country’s permission. They may be able to do this by obtaining an entry document known as a visa. The…

Racketeers, Mobsters, & Plaintiffs’ Mass-Action Attorneys

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Briana Rosenbaum, The RICO Trend in Class Action Warfare, 102 Iowa L. Rev. (forthcoming 2016), available at SSRN. Brooke D. Coleman A racketeer, a mobster, and a plaintiffs’ mass-action attorney walk into a bar. What might be a decent setup for a joke is actually dead serious. Like members of organized crime, plaintiffs’ mass-action attorneys are being sued under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statutes. Briana Rosenbaum’s The RICO Trend in Class Action Warfare carefully considers existing remedies for frivolous litigation and critiques what she sees as the inefficacy of “the RICO reprisal.” Rosenbaum readily admits that some mass-action attorneys include frivolous claims among meritorious ones in an attempt to obtain a larger settlement, otherwise known as “specious claiming.” But Rosenbaum argues that remedies for abusive litigation already exist. There are tort remedies such as malicious…

You be the judge: what sentence for mother and grandmother who delivered deadly heroin to teen?


"The Challenges of 'Improving' the Modern Death Penalty"

Principled Is Only Great If You’re Alive

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Buffalo high school students get to hear what ex-state trooper, now lawyer, John Elmore has to say about encounters with police. He’s written a book about it, and stories about his lectures have appeared with some regularity in the Buffalo News.  The latest article was October 1st, but inexplicably no longer appears online. The TL;dr version falls under the mantra, “comply or die,” including such advice as “never run,” “show your hands” and “never touch a cop.”  It’s all familiar and fundamental. The boys are all too familiar with the images and the aftermath of the deadly police encounters, whether it’s Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., or Eric Garner in Staten Island or Philando Castile near St. Paul, Minn. “It’s wrong to say all cops are bad,” Elmore told them. “Most cops are good people.”* But Elmore understands its hard to be respectful to police if they’re not…

Texas Sex Offender Registration: What It Means and How It Works

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Sex Offender Registration in Texas: Facts and Details Sex offender registration is a punishment for certain criminal convictions in the state of Texas. The purpose of this registration is to prevent convicted sex offenders from committing additional violations. It is used as system to keep track of convicted sex offenders. It’s also a form of punishment because it restricts the freedom of the offender. Sex offender registration is very serious and it is only applied in certain cases. In nearly all cases, this registration is ordered by a court for a person who has been convicted of one or more sexually-based crimes. This includes a large variety of offenses which will be explained in this article. HAVE YOU BEEN CHARGED WITH A SEX CRIME IN TEXAS? BRETT A. PODOLSKY IS A TOUGH, EXPERIENCED CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER WHO CAN HELP PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. CONTACT HIS OFFICE TODAY. Sex Offender Registration Details The actual registration process includes a lot of details but…

Ellison & Smith on Hate Crimes Against Sex Workers

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Graham Ellison and Lucy Smith (Queen's University Belfast - School of Law and Independent) have posted Hate Crime Legislation and Violence Against Sex Workers in Ireland: Lessons in Policy and Practice (Forthcoming in: Haynes Amanda; Jennifer Schweppe, Seamus Taylor. (Eds)...

The Legal System’s Naivete Gap

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When Matthew Chan learned that there was a lawsuit against him, or some fictional ghost with a similar name, by dentist Mitul Patel, for the purpose of obtaining a phony judgment to be use to get Yelp to take down an unfavorable review, it was kinda shocking.  At the time, the question was raised whether there was an epidemic of such things happening. As it turns out, there is, as Public Citizen’s Paul Alan Levy found out. There are about 25 court cases throughout the country that have a suspicious profile: All involve allegedly self-represented plaintiffs, yet they have similar snippets of legalese that suggest a common organization behind them. (A few others, having a slightly different profile, involve actual lawyers.) All the ostensible defendants ostensibly agreed to injunctions being issued against them, which often leads to a very quick court order (in some cases, less than a week). Of these 25-odd cases, 15 give the addresses of the defendants — but a…
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