The National Hockey League realized last year that it has a growing problem with increased drug use by its players. The league met with the NHL Players Association to add cocaine and similar drugs to its banned substance list. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told the media at the time: “The number of [cocaine] positives are more than they were in previous years and they’re going up. I wouldn’t say it’s a crisis in any sense. What I’d say is drugs like cocaine are cyclical and you’ve hit a cycle where it’s an ‘in’ drug again. I’d be shocked if we’re talking about couple dozen guys. I don’t want to be naïve here – but if we’re talking about more than 20 guys I’d be shocked. Because we don’t test in a comprehensive way, I can’t say.” Sounds like the Deputy Commissioner was being “naïve.” This was evidenced by the recent guilty plea…
Ex-NHL Player Pleads Guilty to Federal Drug Charges
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What Happens When You Go to Drug Court in Utah?
The penalties for drug crimes in Utah can be harsh, especially if the offense is a felony. Depending on the nature and severity of the offense, a defendant who is convicted could be facing years in prison and many thousands of dollars in fines, plus the long-term difficulties that come from living with a drug-related criminal record. However, if a defendant successfully finishes drug court, his or her charges will be dropped, and he or she will not have to go to prison. Which Defendants Qualify for Drug Court in Utah? In case you missed our earlier article on drug court eligibility, here’s a quick overview of how you qualify: You must be charged with a non-violent drug-related felony. You must have at least one prior drug conviction for which you were sentenced. You must be a lawful resident of Utah. You cannot enter drug court if: You were charged with a marijuana crime or…
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New York Doctor Charged With Taking Kickbacks In Test-Referral Arrangement With Clinical Lab. Huge Case With 27 Doctors Pleading Guilty.
Federal health care fraud cases involving payments for referrals are getting larger, involving more health care providers and get prosecuted in phases. One case in New York how these cases keep coming out of the same investigation. On December 20, 2016, Thomas V. Savino, M.D., a doctor practicing in Staten Island, New York, was charged with accepting payments (bribes) in exchange for test referrals as part of a long-running marketing arrangement operated by Biodiagnostic Laboratory Services LLC (BLS) of New Jersey. He is the 30th physician charged who referred cases to BLS. The cases arising out of BLS' operations is believed to be the largest number of medical professionals ever prosecuted in a kickback case. The investigation has thus far resulted in 41 guilty pleas – 27 of them from doctors – in connection with the marketing and kickback arrangements. Some of these were alleged sham lease, service and consulting agreements. On…
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Will a Trump Administration Change Anything About College Sexual Assault?
Earlier this month, my colleague blogged about concerns that a weaker federal Department of Education (DOE) in the Trump Administration would mean less protection against discrimination and harassment for minority students. Under Obama the DOE took strong, sometimes controversial, positions in the name of anti-discrimination, for example, issuing numerous guidance documents instructing schools on how to address sexual harassment and sexual assault, and interpreting Title IX to protect transgender students. In the views of its critics, DOE often went too far in issuing these rules, both because it circumvented the normal rule-making procedures for administrative agencies, and because in many instances its guidance letters seemed to directly conflict with the free speech and due process rights of students. It seems safe to assume that sexual harassment prevention is not high on Trump’s priority list. During the presidential campaign videos surfaced of him discussing…
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News Scan
Annual "Death Penalty In Decline" Story: Over the Christmas weekend newspapers across the country published stories reporting that the nation is abandoning capital punishment. This selection is authored by Sam Hananel of the Associated Press. The stories, Informed by the annual December report from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), indicate that only 30 people in the U.S. were sentenced to death in 2016, down from 49 last year. DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham believes that the drop suggests that the country is going through "a major political climate change" regarding the death penalty. But in states where the death penalty was on the ballot, political efforts to abolish it failed. Nebraska voters chose to reinstate the death penalty by a margin of 61-39%. Oklahoma voters adopted a measure to protect its death penalty from Constitutional challenges by a margin of 88-34% and in…
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Synagogue Vandalized In Santa Monica
Living Torah Center Chabad, a Jewish synagogue in Santa Monica, has experienced its share of anti-semitic acts over the past couple years ranging from a man interrupting a service by yelling, “Heil Hitler” to a letter containing an anti-semitic message left in the synagogue’s mailbox. The most recent incident was discovered by a Rabbi who arrived Christmas morning to the repugnant sight of feces and food smeared across the entrance. Synagogue officials believe the vandalism to be racially motivated and although Santa Monica Police Department has not officially classified the criminal act as a Hate Crime, detectives have not ruled out the possibility as their investigation continues. In California, the property crime of vandalism is typically prosecuted as a misdemeanor offense under Penal Code statute 594(a) and is described as defacing with graffiti or an inscribed object, damaging, or destroying real or personal property that is not his or her own. However,…
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New Study Says Bite Mark Evidence Should Not be Used in Criminal Cases
Bite mark evidence as a forensic science technique used at crime scenes has been under fire for some time. Now a new paper has urged law enforcement agencies to discontinue its use. The paper in Journal of Law and the Biosciences outlines the legal basis for the rise of the bite-mark identification technique and its shortcomings. An article in Science Daily states dentists claim that they can accurately link a bite mark to the one and only set of teeth in the world. The article points out there is “no sound basis for believing that forensic dentists can do such a thing.” Before bite mark evidence was used in a criminal case in 1974, forensic dentists only used bite mark evidence to compare the victims’ teeth against their dental records, which often included full-mouth X-rays. However, in 1975 bite marks were used to try to identify an offender for the first time in the United States, in California. Bite mark evidence was one of the techniques used in the…
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Jessica Wilson is the 2015-2016 Law Offices of David Michael Cantor Scholarship winner!
The Law Offices of David Michael Cantor 2015-2016 scholarship contest ended on November 30, 2016. The essays subject title was “The necessity and value of the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt in the criminal justice system”. The minimum length requirement was 750 words (about a page and a half, single spaced). There were two individual occurrences which made this year’s contest so remarkable. First, the content of Jessica Wilson’s essay is highly unusual. She focuses on her own mother being tried and convicted for the murder of her father. The second occurrence which made this year’s contest so remarkable was the fact that only seven (7) people bothered to enter the contest in order to vie for the $2,500 scholarship.The Law Offices of David Michael Cantor has a companion firm (Cantor Crane) that emphasizes only personal injury and civil litigation. A concurrent scholarship contest was run by Cantor Crane during this last year which…
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RIP Carrie Fisher and George Michael and Open Thread
Carrie Fisher has died. George Michael died on Christmas day in London. Both deaths are heart-related. News that makes you want to take another shower: The UnPresident Elect has named his family's lawyer of 20 years to the position of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Our Five Favorite Blog Posts From 2016
2016 is coming to a close, which means it’s a good time to look back at our year in review. We’ve published just under 200 blog posts this year, so there’s a lot to sift through. However, we took a stroll through the archives to find which stories grabbed the biggest headlines or which ones we simply found the most entertaining in 2016. Below, check out our five favorite blog posts from 2016. Top Five Blog Posts 5. 4 Tips For Creating a Law School Study Schedule One reason we like to share things on the blog is because we have a lot of firsthand experience when it comes to practicing in the field of criminal law. We want to pass on some helpful tips and tricks whenever we can to future legal professionals, and this post was created by lawyers for future lawyers. Not only did we have a good time writing it, but we also think it’s a useful piece of information for any aspiring lawyers. 4. Why Do Lawyers Defend Guilty People? We also enjoyed penning…
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Teva Pharmaceutical Enters Into Deferred Prosecution Agreement And Agrees to Pay More Than $283 Million in Fines For Paying Government Officials in Various Countries to Promote Drugs and Paying Doctors in Mexico to Prescribe Its Drugs
What's the difference between the way the government treats large or public healthcare businesses and medium to small sized businesses when it comes to violating regulations? Plenty.Well, to begin with, large businesses have the ability to pay huge fines, employ thousands and the government tends to not want them to fail. A recent case involving Teva would have been very different if it were a small or medium sized business.Deferred prosecution agreements (DPA), for example, are almost impossible to obtain with small to medium size health care businesses. When clients note that large businesses do these same practices, they must remember that being so large gives them benefits as well. In a recent case, Teva obtained a DPA showing that being a large publicly owned company has its benefits. A DPA usually requires a strict compliance program and reporting to the government but it allows the entity to avoid criminal plea which would shut down a business engaged in healthcare…
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7 Things to Look for When Choosing a Nursing Home
It is never an easy decision to move a loved one into a long-term care facility. And once you make the choice, you still need to find the right nursing home to fit their needs. If your parent, grandparent, or spouse needs to move into a Pennsylvania or New Jersey nursing home, be sure to thoroughly research the facilities in the area to choose one equipped to meet their needs.Here are seven tips to help you make a more informed decision when choosing a nursing home for your loved one:1. Gather information from the Department of Health.Many states -- including both Pennsylvania and New Jersey -- task their Department of Health with oversight of nursing homes and other skilled nursing facilities. They can provide you with a list of nearby facilities, and offer tools to help you narrow your list of choices. You can use your state’s online search to help you find a New Jersey nursing home, or find the right Bucks County nursing home for your loved one. 2. Ask for…
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Virtual Reality (VR) Simulated Drunk Driving Accident Device Now Available
There are many people who drive drunk on a regular basis. Some of these people will be in a drunk driving accident at some future point in their lives, and some already have been in one. Some may be lucky enough to avoid an accident. However, when a person drives drunk, it is hard to appreciate the seriousness of their actions, because that person is viewing everything while being intoxicated. This not only has physical effects, but also makes people more likely to engage in dangerous behavior like drunk driving. However, if a person could experience what they are doing when they are driving drunk while sober and be able to appreciate everything, it might make people think twice before getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle after having a few too many drinks. At least that is what the company that owns Johnnie Walker and many other big label alcohol brands are hoping. They have recently worked with a technology company to create a fully immersive virtual…
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Levine on Disciplinary Regulation of Abuses of Prosecutorial Discretion
Samuel J. Levine (Touro College - Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center) has posted The Potential Utility of Disciplinary Regulation as a Remedy for Abuses of Prosecutorial Discretion (12 Duke J. Const. L. & Pub. Pol'y 1 (2016)) on SSRN. Here...
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THE CATEGORICAL APPROACH DOES NOT APPLY TO A CONTEMPORANEOUS CRIME OF VIOLENCE AND A VIOLATION OF 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)
In two cases decided on December 19, 2016, United States v. Robinson, No. 15-1402, 2016 WL 7336609 and United States v.Galati, No. 15-1609, 2016 WL 7336610, the Circuit adopted a novel approach to addressing whether an offense qualifies as a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). The Circuit held that the categorical approach, which directs a court to look only at the elements of the particular offense of conviction to determine whether it qualifies as a crime of violence (See Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575 (1990)), does not apply when a 924(c) conviction is contemporaneous with the conviction for a crime of violence. The Court said that this is because the record of all necessary facts are before the district court. The facts of the charged offenses, either determined by a jury (as in Robinson) or admitted by the defendant during a guilty plea, unmistakably shed light on whether the purported crime of violence was committed with…
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“Use of a Minor in Nudity-Oriented Material,” the Search Warrant and Search Protocols
This post examines an opinion from the Court of Appeals of Ohio – 5th District, Ashland County: State v. Gornall, 2016 WL 6575173 (2016). The opinion begins by explaining thatElliot T. Gornall appeals a judgment of the Ashland County Common Pleas Court convicting him of sixty-six counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance (Ohio Revised Code 2907.323(A)(1)), six counts of attempted illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance (Ohio Revised Code 2923.02(A), (Ohio Revised Code 2907.323(A)(1)), fifty-five counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor (Ohio Revised Code 2907.321(A)(5)), forty-five counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance (Ohio Revised Code 2907.323(A)(3)), two counts of aggravated possession of drugs (Ohio Revised Code 2925.11(A), possession of marijuana (Ohio Revised Code 2925.11(A)), and receiving stolen property (Ohio Revised Code 2913.51(A)). Appellee is the…
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Leading candidate for case name of the year
United States v. Zachary Stanley Knows His Gun, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160429 (D.Mont. Nov. 2, 2016)
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"Contact High: The External Effects of Retail Marijuana Establishments on House Prices"
The title of this post is the title of this interesting new paper available via SSRN authored by James Neil Conklin, Moussa Diop and Herman Li. here is the abstract: Using publicly available data from the city of Denver and the state of Colorado, this study examines the effects of...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/ijH6jlqHohU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>
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Former Deputy AG Phil Heymann makes full-throated pitch for Justice Department to address Rubashkin case
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SW for Amazon Echo: USA Today: Alexa: Who dunnit?
USA Today: Alexa: Who dunnit? by Elizabeth Weise: SAN FRANCISCO — In what may be a first, police in Arkansas asked Amazon for recordings potentially made by an Echo device in connection with a murder investigation. Police in Bentonville, Ark., … Continue reading →
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