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DE: CI reported arrest warrant for def so he was arrested; no warrant, however, so search incident was invalid

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A CI told the police that defendant had a warrant for his arrest. Without checking, the police arrested. There was no warrant, and the search incident to arrest is void. State v. Rodriguez, 2016 Del. Super. LEXIS 642 (Dec. 21, … Continue reading →

D.V.I.: Telephonic warrant requirements were complied with and GFE didn’t apply

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The telephonic search warrant here failed the requirements of Rule 41, including the verbatim reading of the warrant to the issuing judge, and didn’t mention that they also wanted to search a car that was omitted from the warrant. The … Continue reading →

When the Mask Drops

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When pro-criminal groups thought (or fooled themselves into thinking) that they had a chance for federal sentencing "reform," what they swore up and down they had in mind was sentencing reduction for "low level, non-violent" offenders.  If you read that phrase once, you read it a million times.  Now that these groups understand they have no chance at such "reform" for the foreseeable future, they let us in on what the plan actually was.  The stuff about "low level, non-violent" offenders was a head fake.  Here's the actual story, courtesy of the New York Times and the Brennan Center:The [Center's] report also recommends a reduction in sentences for major crimes that account for a majority of the prison population -- aggravated assault, murder, nonviolent weapons offenses, robbery, serious burglary and serious drug trafficking. (Under such a system, the typical inmate convicted of, say, robbery would serve 3.1…

Injury crash NB US95 MP327 (District 2)

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IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Idaho State Police Regional Communication Center - North 615 W Wilbur Ave Suite A Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83815 Please direct questions to the appropriate District Offices District 1 (208) 209-8620 Fax (208) 209- 8618 District 2 (208) 799-5150 PRESS RELEASE FOR DISTRICT TWO CASE # L16001657 --------------------- PRESS RELEASE ----------------------------- DATE: December 26, 2016 TIME: 6:25 pm LOCATION: NB US95 MP327, GENESSEE JCT VEHICLE #1 ------------- DRIVER- LAURA B. BOWEN AGE 53 ADDRESS- GENESEE, ID INJURIES- NO VEHICLE YEAR- 1993 VEHICLE MAKE- FORD VEHICLE MODEL- RANGER WRECKER- MOSCOW AUTO SEATBELTS- Yes ------------- VEHICLE #2 ------------- DRIVER- STUART W. MALLEY AGE-45 ADDRESS- HAYDEN, ID INJURIES- YES…

Comparing MLM and Corporate America

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Fans of multi-level marketing (MLM) often say that it is just like corporate America! There are levels of employees and managers… Corporate America is a pyramid and MLm is no different. That’s a faulty analysis. When I call MLM a pyramid scheme, I am not calling that because the management structure looks like a pyramid. I am calling it a pyramid scheme because of how it functions. A pyramid scheme is a pay-to-play scam. People pay to become a part of it, and they pay continually through minimum purchases that are required to remain a qualified member of the scheme. MLM is based on the continuous recruitment of people into the scam using the promise of making money, despite the fact that more than 99% of participants in MLM actually lose money. MLMs sell a fake opportunity. While they appear to be focused on selling products or services, those things are simply a front to make the “opportunity” look like a legitimate business. Sadly, MLM is not a…

The “White Genocide” Litmus Test

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A joke? That’s how Robby Soave took it. On the 24th day of December in the year of our Lord, two-thousand and sixteen, a Drexel University professor tweeted, “All I want for Christmas is white genocide.” It sounds like the professor, George Ciccariello-Maher, was probably joking. Indeed, he claims that he was. And Ciccariello-Maher has made similar remarks—with varying levels of seriousness—in the past. The Drexel prof followed up his twit with more of the same. In a follow-up tweet, he added, “To clarify: when the whites were massacred during the Haitian revolution, that was a very good thing indeed.” Drexel University did not take these twits lightly. There’s a bigger issue: Drexel. According to the Associated Press, the university was not content to merely condemn the tweet. Drexel is “taking this situation very seriously”—which is a mistake—and has “contacted the professor to meet.” In…

Van Hilley: 1946-2016

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We mourn the passing of Van Hilley and extend our deepest sympathies to his family and the lawyers and staff members at Goldstein, Goldstein & Hilley. Van was an outstanding trial lawyer and a long-time leader in the San Antonio,...

Driving Under the Influence of….Caffeine?

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Just when you thought the "War on Drunk Driving" could not get any crazier….. California Man Fights DUI Charge for Driving Under Influence of Caffeine San Francisco, CA.  Dec. 24 - Caffeine may be the “nootropic” brain drug of choice in Silicon Valley, but an hour’s drive north in Solano County, California, the stimulant could get you charged with driving under the influence. That is according to defense attorney Stacey Barrett, speaking on behalf of her client, Joseph Schwab.  After being pulled over on 5 August 2015, Schwab was charged by the Solano County district attorney with misdemeanor driving under the influence of a drug. Almost 18 months later, Schwab is preparing to go to trial. The only evidence the DA has provided of his intoxication is a blood test showing the presence of caffeine. Schwab was driving home from work when he was pulled over by an agent from the California department of alcoholic beverage control, who…

Federal Computer Crimes | Federal Criminal Defense | Computer Crimes

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We often see “hacking” portrayed in movies and television as cases where an individual attempts to access a secure database or computer system in order to get information that would not be accessible through legal means. However the media often talks about hacking in generic terms. Many people do not have a true sense of what federal laws are being violated when someone “hacks” a computer, and what makes these acts illegal. The primary statute that deals with federal computer crimes is 18. U.S.C. 1030, known as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The CFAA makes it illegal for an individual or group to distribute computer code or place code into the stream of commerce if it is intended to create an economic loss or damage. The CFAA was originally enacted in 1984 and was intended to apply to government-owned computers and computers belonging to financial institutions. However, as computer technology became more prevalent, cyber crimes…

Roxbury Man Arrested for Allegedly Hitting Police Car While Drunk

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According to a recent article by The Boston Herald, a man from Roxbury was arrested after he allegedly crashed his BMW sport utility vehicle (SUV) into the rear of a Massachusetts State Police (MSP) cruiser that was parked on the side of the road.  MSP has said that this driver was one of about a dozen other drunk drivers arrested over the Thanksgiving weekend. There was a trooper in the parked MSP cruiser who apparently suffered back and neck injuries as result of the crash. Those injuries were not considered life-threatening. When troopers approached the man’s vehicle following the crash, they immediately became suspicious that he was operating his motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol (OUI) and began to investigate further. The driver allegedly told troopers that he was having trouble changing lanes and that was the reason he “skidded” into the parked state police cruiser. He then allegedly told troopers that he was traveling…

California Man Earns DUI For Drinking Coffee

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If driving under the influence of caffeine is a crime, millions of Americans would be pulled over every day. However, that appears to be the case for a California man, who was recently arrested for a coffee-based DUI. Although the incident actually occurred 18 months ago, Joseph Schwab is still fighting the case with the state. It all started back in 2015 when an agent from the California department of alcoholic beverage control spotted Schwab driving in what the agent would describe as an erratic manner. After Schwab cut off the agent, the woman, who was driving an unmarked car, turned on her lights and pulled Schwab over to the side of the road. Based on his reckless driving, the agent asked Schwab to take a field breathalyzer test. Knowing that he would pass, Schwab agreed and blew 0.00 on the breath test. However, the agent was still convinced that Schwab was under the influence of an illegal substance, so she arrested Schwab for driving under the influence and he…

State should pick up more local indigent defense costs, but not all of it

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The Texas Judicial Council issued a resolution supporting 100% state funding for indigent defense, which at present is mostly paid for by counties. Along that same vector, the Texas Indigent Defense Commission's Legislative Appropriations Request asked the state to pay for half the total indigent-defense cost in the next budget, up from 12 percent in the last one, rising to cover the full cost in six years. Grits supports additional funding for indigent defense from the state, but I disagree with my friend Jim Bethke, executive director of the TIDC, that the state should take over all of it.There are lots of reasons it's beneficial for counties to still have skin in the game. The state pays for 100% of prison costs, for example, so local prosecutors seek the longest possible sentences knowing the expense won't come from the county budget. Mass incarceration is driven by local decision making. And economics provides a practical check on…

Mackay on Nordic Prisons

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Anita Mackay (La Trobe University) has posted Human Rights Law Compliance in Prisons: What Can Australia Learn from the Nordic Approach (20(1) Australian Journal of Human Rights 31) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The conditions in Australian prisons reveal...

Indigent Defense Resource Roundup

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Here are links to some excellent resources found in the Texas Indigent Defense Commission winter newsletter that Grits wanted to preserve for my own purposes:See a press release and Texas Judicial Council resolution supporting recommendations from the Timothy Cole Exoneration Review Commission.See a four-page primer on the Texas Fair Defense Act created for Texas legislators and staff.See the Judicial Council's recommendations regarding legislation governing pretrial decision making practices.From the Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School, "Moving Beyond Money: A Primer on Bail Reform"Here's a toolkit for public defenders from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association on how and why to increase defenders' analytical capacity, .See meeting materials from a Mental Health Roundtable hosted by TIDC in November.TIDC has added a Juvenile Addendum and an Appellate Addendum to its criminal defense lawyer caseload data.…

Driving While Intoxicated…On Caffeine

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It appears yet another lab is in hot water due to poor protocol.  The Austin Police Department crime lab has been in and out of the news for years now.  As you may recall, the DNA analysis section was actually shut down following claims of improper testing.  In 2012, the lab was found to have many contaminated samples and reagents in the lab.  One person was exonerated after a sample from a penis swab had been mixed with a vaginal swab of the victim.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It doesn’t get much worse than that. Well now, the section that performs the blood analysis on DWI samples is under fire.  A scientist and former employee of the lab claims the lab’s blood alcohol analysis methods were not up to existing standards in the industry.  The former employee who now works at a different lab was hired to retest a sample from the APD crime lab.  She states that her analysis of the sample had a much different level of…

Who is liable for sexual abuse in nursing homes?

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No one wants to consider the possibility of their aging loved one suffering sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted caregiver. However, it is a very real danger for many seniors. While other types of nursing home abuse may occur more frequently, sexual abuse in nursing homes can be especially heinous and emotionally damaging to victims. If you have a loved one who lives in a nursing home or other long-term care facility, you need to know how to spot signs of abuse and how to react if you do not believe they are receiving the level of care they deserve.What constitutes sexual abuse at a nursing home?Any non-consensual contact that is sexual in nature constitutes abuse. This includes any such contact with a senior who cannot give consent, or does not have the capacity to reasonably weigh the risks before giving consent. Ways in which perpetrators may sexually abuse nursing home residents include:Inappropriate touchingSexual assault or batteryRapeForced watching of…

Is a nursing home liable for a resident's bedsores?

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It is not uncommon to hear about bedridden seniors developing bedsores, but many do not realize that many cases of bedsores stem from a caregiver’s neglect. With proper care, bedsores are often preventable. When caregivers fail to provide the care necessary to reduce the risk of this type of skin injury, they or the facility they work for may be liable for neglect and resulting damages.What is a bedsore?Bedsores are skin ulcers caused by pressure. Most commonly, these pressure sores occur on areas where skin stretches over bone. This includes around the tailbone and hips, as well as heels, ankles, and other areas. On seniors and others with limited mobility, these sores can occur on other areas as well.Bedsores can vary in severity, from a minor area of red, irritated skin to a gaping wound that exposes underlying structures such as bone. When a bedsore includes a break in the skin, the risks associated with these injuries skyrocket. This is especially true in nursing…

Three Straight Victories At The Court Of Appeals

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This morning our office won its third case at the Minnesota Court of Appeals in a row!  Here is the opinion.   Once again, the issue was a misleading advisory read to a driver prior to a chemical test.  Instead of rehashing this subject to death, I will point you to a blog we we wrote after our second victory on this same issue with links to substantive blog entries that explain the arguments. Also, as we have mentioned before, this issue is going to be heard by the Minnesota Supreme Court and we will provide updates as oral argument approaches.

9th Circuit: District court breached defendant’s right to counsel by failing to properly address timely request for substitute counsel; government breached due process by failing to turn over exculpatory evidence

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United States v. Yepiz et al., — F.3d —, 2016 WL 7367827 (9th Cir. Dec. 20, 2016): District court’s inscrutable rejection of defendant’s pro se letter requesting substitute counsel breached Sixth Amendment; government breached Brady v. Maryland by failing to turn over evidence impeaching key witness Q. Is there any reason for a district judge to worry about handing a signature stamp to a staffer and authorizing her to use it to deal with improperly-filed pro se letters from represented criminal defendants? A. Yes. Bad things can happen if such a letter is mishandled. Continue reading →

Audits – To Do or Not to Do

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The New Year brings all sorts of new issues.  There will have a new administration and, more than likely, a new enforcement focus.  That does not mean that good practices should be abandoned, however.  One of the things a company can and should do is to make a determination and take the necessary steps to reduce its exposure to environmental enforcement issues.  The most effective way to do that is through the audit process as it can alert the company to any issues lurking in the weeds.  How do you protect yourself when doing this self-critical analysis?  There are a number of state privilege laws as well as federal disclosure “safe” havens.  There are a number of common law privileges available as well.  Also, does the company have a corporate policy covering audits?  All good topics and all for another day’s discussion. First, the company needs to decide whether or not to undertake an audit.  If there are…
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