High-profile recipient of federal clemency headed to prison once more, and then...
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Jury Trial: What does your day look like?
You and the District Attorney were unable to resolve your case, so your case has proceeded to trial. Jury selection has wrapped up and now your big day has arrived. Depending on the number of witnesses and complexity of the legal issues, a jury trial can last anywhere from a few hours to several ...
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King & Heise on Appeals by the Prosecution
Nancy J. King and Michael Heise (Vanderbilt University - Law School and Cornell Law School) have posted Appeals by the Prosecution on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Scholarly and public debates about criminal appeals have largely taken place in an...
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What Is Disorderly Conduct?
Disorderly conduct is a common crime that has recently come more into focus given the current rise in protests happening around the country. Any conduct that has the potential to disturb the peace can, in theory, qualify as disorderly, and if you are arrested or charged with an offense of this type, understanding it fully can make a difference in how it plays out. The Statute Is Vague Illinois’ statute defines disorderly conduct as any behavior that is unreasonable and causes alarm or provokes a breach of the peace. This can encompass several different types of conduct and is often used as a catch-all of sorts for any behavior that is held to be somehow wrong or inappropriate without it being quite criminal enough to provoke a more specific charge. Numerous types of incidents would fall under disorderly conduct, such as domestic disputes without substantial injury, certain types of protest, public drunkenness, and the like. If you are charged with disorderly conduct,…
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A Visit to the Sex Offender Accountability and Responsibility Program
Yesterday I went to Lillington to teach a class for the inmates in the North Carolina prison system’s Sex Offender Accountability and Responsibility (SOAR) program. I’d like to share a little bit about what I taught—and what I learned. The lone sex offender treatment program in the North Carolina prison system is the SOAR program at Harnett Correctional Institution in Lillington. Around 50 inmates participate in the program at any given time. All of the participants are men; there is no counterpart program for women. Recidivism data for SOAR program participants are promising. As I noted in my recap of the Sentencing Commission’s most recent recidivism report, graduates have the lowest rates of re-arrest and reimprisonment of any correctional program. The psychologist who runs the program invited me to come talk to the inmates about sex offender sentencing, registration, and monitoring. He is always kind enough to come teach in our classes for judges and…
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Man in Tiff with Eatery Staff After Prom Gets Choked by Officer
A man who went to a Waffle House Restaurant in North Carolina is facing charges of resisting arrest after his arguing with the staff of the establishment resulted in a call to the police. A responding officer allegedly ended up choking and roughly handling the suspect which was caught on video and has opened an investigation into the event. 22-year-old Anthony Wall and his 16-year-old sister attended her high school prom together on Saturday. After the dance, they went to Waffle House Restaurant for something to eat. Wall allegedly became upset for a reason that has not been disclosed and he began to argue with the staff members. The verbal fight escalated to the point that the authorities were notified and the incident was reported. Continue reading →
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Threats and Stalking Can Result in Washington Domestic Violence Protection Order
Romantic and familial relationships can grow contentious and sometimes become violent. Sometimes relationships can become so contentious that one party seeks to have a court intervene and issue a civil protection order to prevent the other party from contacting them or engaging in other activities. Washington civil protection order attorneys know that a victim does not have to wait until they are seriously injured to seek a civil protection order. In some cases, a court may issue a civil protection order even if there has not been a physical assault, as seen in one recent case. The former husband appealed a domestic violence protection order (DVPO) issued in favor of his ex-wife. In her petition, the ex-wife stated her ex-husband had violated the no-contact order entered after the divorce. She stated that he had threatened to kill her when she filed the protection order and that he had threatened her many times. She stated he had told her she…
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News Scan
Illegals Arrested for Assaults: An illegal alien has been jailed in Hayes County Texas for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl. Moses Leos of the Hayes Free Press reports that Luis-Gerardo Sanchez Castillo was identified by the victim from a photo lineup as the person who assaulted her in 2012. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed a hold on Castillo in the event he gains release on bail. Andrew Theen of the Oregonian reports that 24-year-old Jesus Ascencio-Molina has been charged with attempted murder for a nail gun attack on a fellow construction worker last month. The reporter neglected to mention that Ascencio-Molina is an illegal alien and habitual criminal who was deported to Mexico in 2013. Fortunately Breck Dumas of the Blaze reported those facts. Because Clackamas is a sanctuary county, local law enforcement is prohibited from holding Ascencio-Molina for ICE if he makes bail.
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NY1: REP in a bathroom with door closed but unlocked
A person in a bathroom without a lock on the door with the door shut has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Police opening the door violated that expectation. People v. Vinson, 2018 NY Slip Op 03437, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. … Continue reading →
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W.D.Tex.: Removal of def’s key fob to press the buttons to locate car was a search that violated a REP in def’s pants pocket
The removal of defendant’s key fob from his pocket to locate his car violated a reasonable expectation of privacy and required suppression of the identity of his car. United States v. Fennell, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77041 (W.D. Tex, May … Continue reading →
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Understanding the Florida Sexual Predator Designation
Florida Statutes § 775.21, also known as the Florida Sexual Predators Act, was established by the Florida Legislature to implement a strategy on how to deal with repeat sexual offenders, sexual offenders who use violence, and sexual offenders who prey on children. Essentially, this strategy includes ensuring decisions to release sexual predators due to prison overcrowding are not made, providing for specialized supervision of sexual predators who are in the community by specially trained probation officers with low caseloads, requiring the registration of sexual predators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, providing for public notification concerning the presence of sexual predators, and prohibiting sexual predators from working with children. Offenders that must be designated as “sexual predator” include offenders convicted of: A capital, life or first-degree felony violation of kidnapping, kidnapping of a child under 13, false imprisonment,…
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Rochester photographer caught with thousands of child pornography images
A photographer and truck driver from Rochester, New York, was arrested on federal child pornography charges. He faces a $250,000 fine and between five to 40 years in federal prison if convicted. Richard Wolfe, 60, was charged with receiving and possessing child pornography after law enforcement officials seized multiple electronic devices containing images and videos of child pornography from his home. Wolfe has previously taken photos of minors while working as a part-time photographer. Canadian law enforcement agents traced an account on a mobile chat app to Wolfe in March 2016. The account had the username rickyraz15. Wolfe had allegedly used the app to send more than 300 messages containing child pornography images in April 2016. Homeland Security agents searched Wolfe’s house on October 31 last year. Authorities seized several documents, a camcorder, a laptop, multiple CDs, digital cameras, SD cards, a thumb drive, an external hard drive and a cellphone. They also…
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Transparency in Science
"Robert Hahn is a visiting professor at Oxford University's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He recently served as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking."Dr. Hahn has an op-ed in the WaPo, titled "Many mocked this Scott Pruitt proposal. They should have read it first." He notes a vehement reaction to the proposal but concludes it is more "the result of rhetoric surrounding the rule" than the rule itself.Here's what the rule would actually do. First, it would require the EPA to identify studies that are used in making regulatory decisions. Second, it would encourage studies to be made publicly available "to the extent practicable." Third, it would define "publicly available" by listing examples of information that could be used for validation, such as underlying data, models, computer code and protocols.…
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The Sentence for Impaired Driving in Georgia
Road deaths are rising nationwide and impaired driving in Georgia remains a major cause of deaths. More than 1,500 people lost their lives in Georgia in 2016. Across the United States, 40,200 people were killed in accidents making 2016 the deadliest year on the nation’s roads since 2007, noted the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. National Safety Council President Deborah Hersman said the three biggest killers on the roads of Georgia and elsewhere are speed, alcohol, and distraction. That hasn’t changed for decades. In any given year, about 3,700 people die in alcohol-related accidents in Georgia. Nationally, about one in three accidents is caused by alcohol or drugs. Impaired Driving in Georgia may carry a heavy sentence Although the number of accidents caused by drunk drivers fell over the last two decades, the figure leveled out in recent years. We still see numerous accidents caused by drunk drivers. Georgia like other states has made sentences for drunk driving…
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Week of May 7 - 11, 2018
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My Ex-Spouse is Emotionally Abusing Me. What Can I Do?
For many individuals going through a divorce, emotional abuse from your ex-spouse or about to be ex-spouse can be one of the most difficult issues to deal with. In our latest blog, we will discuss how to deal with manipulation, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, and harassment from your former partner, along with what legal action you can take. In the past, we’ve stressed the effects of emotional domestic violence that occur when you are in a current relationship, but what about when you are separated? Divorced Parents and Emotional Abuse The power struggle between divorced parents can be a very serious issue. In many cases, an ex-spouse can use various forms of emotional abuse and harassment to gain control over the situation. This typically involves issues of child custody and could become quite the “he said, she said” incident. Both parties might not even be aware of this dynamic. For example, a parent may refuse to change their holiday plans and wants…
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WHITE COLLAR CRIME DEFINED
[Photo of Sociologist Edwin Sutherland from wikipedia]In 1939, famous sociologist Edwin Sutherland defined white collar crime as crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.This definition has been criticized by many other the years since then. For example, as a part-time criminal justice professor, I have often taken issue with Sutherland's definition because it requires that the crime must have been committed by a person of "high social status" in order to be classified as white collar crime. In my opinion, even an embezzlement committed by a low level bank teller would constitute white collar crime.Do you agree? What is your opinion about Sutherland's definition of white collar crime?
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NYTimes: Service Meant to Monitor Inmates’ Calls Could Track You, Too
NYTimes: Service Meant to Monitor Inmates’ Calls Could Track You, Too by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries: Thousands of jails and prisons across the United States use a company called Securus Technologies to provide and monitor calls to inmates. But the former sheriff … Continue reading →
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Miller on Breaking Windows as Corrective Justice
Eric J. Miller (Loyola Law School Los Angeles) has posted Breaking Windows as Corrective Justice: Impure Resistance in Urban Ghettos (53 Tulsa Law Review, 313 (2017)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This book review of Tommie Shelbie’s Dark Ghettos:...
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When Do You Have Corruption? From McDonnell to Silver
Perhaps one of the most confused areas of the law is the Hobbs Act/Bribery area. Cases throughout the years have defined the need for a quid pro quo (McCormick), and noted how a passive acceptance can satisfy that prong of...
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