Illegal Arrested For Molesting Little Girl: A twice-deported Guatemalan national was arrested in Stamford, Connecticut last week for molesting a 6-year-old girl. Jennifer Glatz of Fox News reports that Pedro Catalan-Veliz was taken into custody and charged with Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Minor and several related crimes and is being held on $200,000 bail. A neighbor intervened after catching Catalan-Veliz with his pants down holding the little girl against a vehicle. Catalan-Veliz was deported in 1996 and again in 2000. He will be arraigned on Friday. Habitual Felon Held in Hammer Attack: Nevada police arrested habitual felon Deandre Chaney, Jr. Saturday, for the brutal September 1st assault on a Sacramento woman and her two young children. Nashelly Chavez of the Sacramento Bee reports that Chaney was arrested in Winnemucca, NV after he fled from officers during a railroad stop. Detectives believe that…
News Scan
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A deep look at "tough on crime" responses to the opioid epidemic
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Sacramento Deputy Sheriff Killed Because of Realignment
The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs has this post, providing further detail on a murder noted in last Friday's News Scan:Prior to AB 109, a no bail warrant for a violation of parole would have been issued for Littlecloud and served upon him following his December 2016 arrest. He would have remained in custody while awaiting both resolution of his new criminal cases and a parole revocation hearing that, based on his continued criminality, would have resulted in a one-year return to state prison. Most importantly, he would not have been on the streets in August, 2017 and able to murder Deputy French.Update: CJLF President Michael Rushford will be on KFI with John & Ken at 5:00 p.m. PDT today to discuss this issue. That's 640 kHz on AM if you are in the Los Angeles area or stream here.
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Harris County Criminal Court Relocation
Criminal Court Update: Criminal courts will resume on September 11, 2017. Criminal District Courts (felony cases) will be relocated to the Civil Courthouse at 201 Caroline and the Juvenile Justice Center at 1200 Congress. County Criminal Courts at Law (misdemeanor cases) will be relocated to the old family law building at 1115 Congress. Misdemeanor dockets […] The post Harris County Criminal Court Relocation appeared first on Jay Cohen Attorney at Law.
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Neighborhood Crime Rates
Like increasing the resolution on a camera, going to finer-grained data gives us a sharper picture of crime, seeing things that we don't see from coarse-grained data."Well the south side of Chicago is the baddest part of town," Jim Croce told us musically in '73. It still is. Rafael Mangual of the Manhattan Institute has this article in the City Journal.What this analysis shows is that, in many American cities, a substantial number of residents live through what can only be described as a homicide epidemic. And, despite assurances to the contrary, nowhere is that epidemic more pronounced than in Sub-Chicago, which happens to be 88 percent black and Latino. If we're serious about improving life in places like South and West Chicago, we must confront the uncomfortable truths about crime concentration in U.S. cities. Step one is recognizing that while most of the country is relatively free from such violence, a portion of the country lives in…
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Rapper DMX charged with tax fraud
The rapper, DMX, entered a not guilty plea to 14 charges of tax fraud on Friday, July 14 in a New York federal court. He spent the previous night in jail, after which he posted a $500,000 bond, and was set free. He was due back in court the next Monday, and could spend a maximum of 44 years in jail. According to prosecutors, the rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, engaged in tax avoidance of $1.7 million in taxes between 2002 and 2005, a time period that marked the height of his career. The indictment states that DMX made an effort to evade taxes by avoiding the use of personal bank accounts, establishing accounts in the names of other people, and using cash to pay a sizable portion of his personal expenses. Between 2010 and 2015, Simmons had earnings in excess of $2.3 million. However, he did not file personal income tax returns during that time frame. He purposely avoided the payment of taxes. For instance, he received hundreds of thousands of dollars of royalty income…
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Is Cyber Bullying By My Spouse Grounds for a Restraining/Protective Order in Pennsylvania?
One of the downsides of the technological advances of the internet is that it has given dangerous individuals another way of spreading intimidation and fear, and perhaps led others who might not make such threats in person to feel empowered to do so via email, Facebook, other social media sites, messaging applications, and by other online means. Any experienced family law attorney will sadly report that such cyber bullying – including threats of abuse and violence, whether made implicitly or explicitly – sometimes happen between spouses who are in the process of divorce or potentially headed down that road. Online harassment and stalking are crimes in Pennsylvania, and your local police department should be notified of any illegal behavior by your spouse, but there are also steps you can personally take with the assistance of a family law attorney to fight back against cyber bullying by a spouse to protect your and your children. One primary method is to obtain a…
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Teacher Allows Son to Sell LSD
Ohio elementary teacher, Amy Panzeca, allowed her 15 year old son to sell LSD to 20-30 juveniles, and letting them use it in her house. She has been charged with permitting drug abuse, endangering children and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Prosecutors said that her son sold the drug to over 20 students. He is facing felony drug charges and is being held at the juvenile detention center. The search warrant states that Panzeca's son was interviewed and he admitted to giving his mom money to buy bitcoins, which he then used to buy LSD online. Panzeca admitted to buying the bitcoins, but said she thought they were being used for her son's gambling habit. The drug force found LSD and marijuana at their house in May. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said that examination of Panzeca's cell phone found evidence that she aware of the drug trafficking in her home.Panzeca plead not guilty to the charges she is facing and is currently on paid…
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Proposition 57 Implementation
Last Friday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation held a public comment hearing on its regulations to implement Proposition 57. This initiative, approved on last November's ballot, authorizes parole for many felons sentenced to what were previously determinate terms. It was backed by big bucks from George Soros et al., and the opposition had pitifully little funding to tell the people what it will really do.Tracey Kaplan and Robert Salonga of the Bay Area News Group have this article on the controversy.I did not attend the hearing because these events are just for show. I mailed in comments for CJLF, for all the good they will do. As bad as Proposition 57 is on its face, CDCR is determined to make it worse.
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Federal Appeals Court Restrict Police Power to Seize Cell Phone
Ezra Griffith was a member of a Washington, D.C. gang. In 2012, Griffith became one of several suspects in the shooting death of a rival gang member. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) had surveillance footage of a getaway vehicle circling the area where the shooting occurred. Two months into their yearlong investigation, MPD homicide detectives found a vehicle that matched the one in the surveillance footage. The vehicle was registered to Griffith’s mother. Upon questioning by detectives, the mother admitted that Griffith was the primary user of the vehicle. During this period, and through most of the investigation, Griffith was incarcerated on unrelated charges in the local jail. Investigation Focuses on Jail Telephone Conversations At some point in their investigation, detectives decided to retrieve Griffith’s recorded jailhouse telephone calls during the period in which they had questioned his mother. There were four…
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Clegg & Usmani on The Racial Politics of Mass Incarceration
John J. Clegg and Adaner Usmani (NYU Sociology and Brown University) have posted The Racial Politics of Mass Incarceration on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Dominant accounts of America's punitive turn assume that black elected officials and their constituents resisted...
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AR: Def’s jumping out of the car when it was stopped for a traffic offense and saying that there was a warrant on him was RS
Defendant’s jumping out of the car when it was stopped for a traffic offense and saying that there was a warrant on him was reasonable suspicion to detain him longer. Rainey v. State, 2017 Ark. App. 427 (Sept. 6, 2017).* … Continue reading →
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Federal Forfeiture Statutes Take Another Hit
Federal forfeiture statutes authorize a dirty business—the taking of an individual’s assets the government believes are tied to criminal activity, for both convicted and un-convicted activity. For example, 18 U.S.C. § 1345 permits a federal district court to freeze, before trial, certain assets of a defendant charged with either a federal banking or health care law violation. These assets include: 1) property ‘obtained as a result of” the crime; 2) property “traceable” to the crime; and 3) other “property of equivalent value” owned by the defendant. 28 U.S.C. § 853 provides for two types of forfeiture of assets upon conviction. First, § 853(a) permits forfeiture of three categories of “tainted” property (i.e., property directly linked to the offense of conviction) which includes: 1) any property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds the person obtained, directly or indirectly,…
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List of Harris County Jail Inmates Entitled to Immediate Release
Article 17.151 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure provides: A defendant who is detained in jail pending trial of an accusation against him must be released either on personal bond or by reducing the amount of bail required, if the state is not ready for trial of the criminal action for which he is being detained within … 90 days from the commencement of his detention if he is accused of a felony …. The State is not ready for trial if the defendant has not been indicted. If a defendant was in jail for ninety days without being indicted, he is entitled to release either by bail reduction or by personal bond. The problem is not corrected by an indictment after the ninety days is up. If the defendant is indicted on day ninety-one, he still gets bail that he can make. It’s not automatic, of course: A lawyer has to call the issue to the attention of a judge, usually with an application for writ of habeas corpus. Following is a list of people currently in…
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What is Jury Nullification?
In April of 2010, Mr. Cornell had his home raided by police where 1/16th of an ounce of marijuana had been found – not enough to roll a joint. None of the potential jurors called for the case where willing to consider convicting someone for possessing a very small amount of marijuana.[1] November 16th 2010, Touray Cornell from Montana, breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as Judge “Dusty” Deschamps convened his court to report that out of all the potential jurors who had been called, not one would be willing to convict Mr. Cornell. Dumbfounded by the jurors’ decision, the District Attorney quickly spoke to Mr. Cornell’s defense counsel and an immediate plea deal was made. Mr. Cornell walked out free without admitting guilt and without probation. Mr. Cornell witnessed the power of Jury Nullification, a show of citizen’s power through the legal system have a long and storied history in America. it is the power of Jury nullification and Mr.…
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Fintech – Anpassung des FINMA-RS Publikumseinlagen bei Nichtbanken
Die Eidg. Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA hat am 1. September 2017 einen Entwurf des revidierten Rundschreibens „Publikumseinlagen bei Nichtbanken“ veröffentlicht, in welchem sie ihre Aufsichtspraxis zur neuen bundesrätlichen Fintech-Regulierung festlegt (siehe Medienmitteilung und Entwurf des Rundschreibens). Die Änderungen stützen sich auf die am 1. August 2017 in Kraft getretenen revidierten Vorschriften zum Abwicklungskonto (Art. 5 Abs. 3 Bst. c) und zur Gewerbsmässigkeit (Art. 6 Abs. 2– 4) der Verordnung über die Banken und Sparkassen (SR 952.02; BankV). (i) Sandbox: die bewilligungsfreie Entgegennahme von Publikumsgeldern bis zu einem Gesamtwert von CHF 1 Mio. wird im teilrevidierten Rundschreiben in Rz. 8.1 ff. konkretisiert. In Bezug auf das Verzinsungs- und Anlageverbot gemäss Art. 6 Abs. 2– 4 BankV verlangt die FINMA dass die von den Kunden einbezahlten Einlagen bis zur Weiterleitung oder Rückzahlung dauernd…
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Office Hours at the Judicial College
Are legal issues keeping you up at night? Have we got a program for you! Let’s talk it out tomorrow during Office Hours at the Judicial College. In an ongoing effort to interact with the legal and judicial community, we’ve launched a new program at the School of Government. The first Thursday of each month, Judicial College faculty and staff will gather for a discussion of legal issues in our respective fields. Our second monthly office hours is tomorrow from 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. John Rubin, Jamie Markham, and I will lead tomorrow’s discussion. Given the faculty line-up, we thought we might talk about expunctions, structured sentencing, DWI sentencing, and sex offender registration. But we want our callers to guide the discussion. So if some other criminal law issue is what you really want to ask about, call in and fire away. Instructions for participating are available here. The program is set up as a web conference so you will need your phone…
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Militarize Police: The Excessive Force, Unjustified Shootings, and Lawsuits They Spawn
Militarize Police: The Excessive Force, Unjustified Shootings, and Lawsuits They Spawn Police misconduct—uses of excessive force, unjustifiable shootings, and planting evidence—is a blight on the criminal justice system, offends the very core of our Constitution and has cost taxpayers in states across the nation hundreds of millions of dollars. Minnesota is one of the states whose taxpayers have been the hardest hit picking up the tabs for the misconduct of their police. For example, Minnesota Public Radio reported that between 2011 and 2014, the city of Minneapolis paid out more than $9.3 million to Minnesotans harmed, in one way or another, by the very police sworn to protect them. “Courageous and Exemplary Cop” Costs City $700,000.00 One of those Minneapolis police officers was Lucas Peterson who had at least 13 excessive force complaints against him and who had cost the city more than $700,000 in lawsuit settlements.…
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Police Body Worn Cameras Are Becoming Tools of Abuse, Of Accountability
Police body cameras are a device worn by law enforcement that allow the police to gather evidence at a crime scene and, probably more importantly, to record the interactions between law enforcement and the public. The Brennan Center for Justice has listed a list of nine types of situations when police body cameras should be required to record. They are: All calls for service and while en-route to emergency calls. Pedestrian stops, including consensual encounters and “Terry Stops” (a brief detention of a person by police on reasonable suspicion of involvement in criminal activity). Traffic stops. Foot and vehicle pursuits. Consensual or warrantless searches. Executing search warrants. Arrests and detentions. Transports (driving with a suspect or prisoner); Other adversarial encounters or situations where criminal activity is likely to be recorded. Body Camera at Center of Political Feud in Rockport, TX A police body camera video is at the…
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Reynolds on Congressional Control of Presidential Pardons
Glenn Harlan Reynolds (University of Tennessee College of Law) has posted Congressional Control of Presidential Pardons on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Though the president’s pardon power is plenary, many questions remain. To what extent may Congress, via legislation, regulate...
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