William A. White is charged with five counts of the federal crime of “communicating an interstate threat to kidnap or injure with intent to extort, in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 875(b).” U.S. v. White, 2014 WL 4450097 (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida 2014). The U.S. District Court Judgewho has the case begins this opinion by explaining exactly what White is charged with, and why:Count One is based on a threatening email sent from the email address nslf_helsterskelter@hotmail.com on May 19, 2012, to the prosecutor, judge, and FBI agent assigned to a state court case against fourteen members of the American Front organization; Count Two is based on the Count One email being sent on May 20, 2012, to other email addresses and media outlets; Count Three is based on a different threatening email allegedly sent by Defendant on May 20, 2012, to a company owned by a family member of the state court prosecutor; Count Four is…
Emails, Facebook, Threats and Charles Manson
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DC marijuana "legalization" ballot measure polling at 65%
From Marijuana Business Daily, a new poll shows 65% of registered voters in support of Washington D.C.'s Initiative 71, a quasi-legalization measure on the ballot this November. Initiative 71 is a bit different from previous marijuana ballot measures. Though the campaign appears to be promoting the measure as a vote...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MarijuanaLaw/~4/Vi-1fd-5_0k" height="1" width="1"/>
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Outlaw Apple
Apple! Yay!!! iPhone! Yay!!! iOS8! Yay!!! Apple said Wednesday night that it is making it impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police — even when they have a search warrant — taking a hard new line as tech companies attempt to blunt allegations that they have too readily participated in government efforts to collect user information. During the Lavabit fiasco, geeks explained with as much aplomb as they could muster how technology could solve government intrusion by making it impossible, with a few deft keystrokes, to get its nasty mitts on anything. Ironically, nobody adores alphabet soup more than the government than geeks. SQL? Cool. Already, applause can be heard. And Android will follow suit any moment now. In the meantime, though, it’s great to see tech companies actually competing on how well they can protect the privacy of their users’ data from the prying…
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SHOPLIFITNG CHARGE AVOIDED
On August 27, 2014, EG, a 58 year old married mother of two children went into the Whole Foods Market in Andover. She filled her shopping cart with about $150.00 worth of food; unfortunately she filled her pocketbook with about $130.00 worth of vitamins. She went through the cash register and paid for the food but did not pay for the vitamins. As she exited the store she was stopped by a loss prevention officer. She was brought back into the store; the vitamins were removed from her pocketbook. The Andover Police were requested by the store and they responded. The Andover Police did not arrest EG but they took her information and told her she would be hearing from the Lawrence District Court. EG is a dental hygienist and she was concerned with the potential effects of having a criminal record. EG retained Attorney Robert Lewin from North Andover. Attorney Lewin immediately contacted the Police Prosecutor from Andover and obtained a copy of the police report. In addition…
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This Is Your Brain On Cheetos
Because they’re not the entitled Slackoisie. Because they say so. 1. We play by our own rules. 2. We don’t take the first answer given to us. 3. We don’t care about getting into trouble. 4. We’re willing to work for nothing if it means being happy… Despite being in debt. 5. We know how to beat the system. 6. We’re always trying to change the game. 7. We have social media on our side. 8. We like a good fight. 9. We don’t care about the perks. 10. We hate that “old boys club” sh*t. 11. We’re not about climbing the ladder, we’re about circumventing it. 12. We ask for what we want rather than implying it. 13. We’re not afraid to quit if we don’t like what’s going on. 14. We’re not on that suit and tie. 15. We’d rather start work at 10 and finish at 10. 16. We’ve got youth on our side. 17. We don’t have a chip on our shoulders. 18. We know technology a hell of a lot better.…
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Grits' recommendations for improving legislative websites
I mentioned that your correspondent testified the other day to the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee on electronic privacy issues. At the same hearing, the committee took testimony from staff only on another interim charge, "Study the online legislative resources available to the public from Texas Senate Committee websites and compare resources to those provided by other state legislative committees in Texas and other states. Determine how Texas Senate websites can be improved to provide a more interactive and transparent government."Texas' legislative websites are better than most. But as the committee discussed the topic, a few recommendations came to mind that weren't mentioned in the invited testimony. Here are Grits' two cents, as somebody who uses legislative websites quite a lot:Place the contents of the committees' backup notebooks online. Before every committee hearing, members are typically given a paper packet of material by…
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‘There Are No Human Rights on a Dead Planet’ Why On Earth Is Amnesty International Joining the People’s Climate March?
By Aaron Tovo, Amnesty International USA volunteer leader and Area Coordinator (Minnesota) I’m going to New York this weekend to make history and to make change. And I’m not the only one. On Sunday, 100,000+ people are expected to gather in New York for the largest climate march in history. We are going to New York as heads of state from across the world prepare for the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015. The Paris meeting is seen by many as the last good opportunity for an international agreement for the next several years. We are marching because we can’t afford to wait. Last year, United Nations independent experts came together for a landmark statement: “If we fail our environment, we fail to protect our human rights.” In fact, Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon is marching with us. Talk about historic! This is why I’m writing about environmental issues in a human rights blog. Here…
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Jury Impartiality: Why it's so Difficult, and How it Can be Achieved
The right to an impartial jury during one's criminal trial is fundamental; it is guaranteed by the 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This right is of such importance because it must be the case that those who render verdicts, which profoundly affect (and sometimes end) lives, must be unbiased and solely basing their judgments off the facts of the case. This, especially in today's media-saturated word, is no easy feat, as our Palm Beach and Broward County criminal defense lawyers know from experience. This issue, and efforts to remedy it, have been brought to light in the pre-trial filings and hearings of the manslaughter case of Palm Beach polo magnate John Goodman, for which the Judge has sent out jury summonses to individuals in Tampa Bay, not wanting to run the risk of a pool of Palm Beach jurors having already made up their minds about Mr. Goodman.
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A Time to Grieve and a Time to Dance
Polina Andrianova and Anna Abramova of the Russian LGBTI organization “Coming Out” (« Выход ») in St Petersburg. By Conor Fortune, News Writer at Amnesty International, who recently returned from St Petersburg Ekaterina Khomenko’s throat was slit when a street cleaner found her in a car with the engine still running in St Petersburg earlier this month. According to media reports, police initially suggested – somewhat incredibly – that she might have committed suicide. An investigation is now under way into the actual cause of the 29-year-old’s death. The authorities haven’t ruled out the possibility that she may have been attacked on the basis of her sexual orientation: she was openly lesbian and gave tango lessons to same-sex couples. Ekaterina Khomenko’s last post on the social network VKontakte was met with homophobic remarks and threats in the run-up to her death. ©VK In the…
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Can a DUI Conviction be Expunged? Part II
The last post discussed some of the background involved in the District of Columbia’s problems it had with its Breathalyzer program. The Metropolitan Police Department not only miscalibrated the machines to read 40 percent higher than they were supposed to but also failed to conduct accuracy testing for a period of almost ten years. As I discussed in Part I, I started an appeal in 2013 for a person who had plead guilty to DUI and served mandatory jail time based on breath scores for a machine that had not been accuracy tested. Through another attorney he had tried to move to withdraw his guilty plea. The government vigorously contested his motion. While the government had agreed to allow hundreds of people to withdraw guilty pleas that plead or were found guilty during the 17 month period the machines were miscalibrated, it did not want to open up Pandora’s Box for ten years of convictions in which MPD failed to conduct accuracy testing. Unfortunately, the trial…
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"The Most Senior Wall Street Official: Evaluating the State of Financial Crisis Prosecutions"
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Country Star Lynn Anderson Arrested for DUI
One-time country superstar Lynn Anderson, who is best known for her 1970 country-pop crossover hit “Rose Garden,” was arrested early on Friday on a DUI charge after she was apparently involved in an accident in Nashville, according to police. The report claims that 66-year-old Anderson “admitted to consuming alcoholic beverages and prescription medication” before the accident happened around 9 p.m. Thursday. Anderson had several top-10 hits in the 1970s and 1980s, and won a Grammy and multiple country music awards. The singer was booked into the Metro Jail early on Friday morning and later released after posting $5,000 bail. Most people fail to realize that driving while under the influence of certain medications can result in an arrest for DUI. It does not matter if the prescription meds were legally prescribed by a doctor and taken in a lawful manner. When it comes to a DUI arrest, do not take underestimate the severity of the situation and do…
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Businessman Indicted for Submitting False Loan Applications
Selim Zherka, 46, Somers, New York, was indicted by a federal grand jury in White Plains for submitting multiple false loan applications to banks, tax fraud, wire fraud, and witness tampering. Zherka allegedly obtained over $146 million in loans from three banks for the purchase and/or refinancing of apartment house complexes by lying about the purchase prices, the down payments, his assets, income, and tax returns. Zherka was arrested by agents of the FBI and is expected to be arraigned in federal court in White Plains. According to the Indictment, from November 2005 through 2008, Zherka obtained a total of over $146 million in loans from three banks—North Fork Bank (now Capital One), Sovereign Bank (now Santander), and Signature Bank—for the purchase and/or refinancing of apartment house complexes in New England, Tennessee, New Jersey, and New York by lying about the purchase prices of the real estate he was acquiring, the amount of the down payments he was making…
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Federal lawsuit claims reckless work of Jacksonville Sheriff's Office led to several false arrests
Several people banded together to file a federal lawsuit against the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office this month, each with a story of how they say sloppy police work led to their arrest for a crime they did not commit. In each instance, the person claims that if simple, routine steps would have been followed by police, detectives would have been able to clearly see they had the wrong person, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. The arrests occurred over the past two years and one man spent nine months in jail trying to convince prosecutors of his innocence, the newspaper reported. The charges people were arrested for that are mentioned in the lawsuit include armed robbery, robbery and theft - the majority of which are serious Jacksonville Felony Charges. In order to make an arrest in a Jacksonville Criminal Case, police must have probable cause to believe the person has committed the crime he or she is accused of committing. In many cases, in order to enter…
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Is Food Babe a Fraud?
I have Facebook friends who regularly “like” posts by Food Babe Vani Hari. She has a cult-like following of people who listen to her as she screams bloody murder about all sorts of food. FoodBabe, known to some as a “food activist,” loves to talk about all the chemicals and toxins in the food we […]
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THE RIGHT TO TREATMENT CASES
Defendant, a 16 year old boy, is charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property both arising out of an alleged pocket-book snatch on May 1, 1978. He was arraigned the next day and held in bail pending a hearing which was held on May 18, 1978. Both charges are class A misdemeanors carrying a maximum penalty for non-youthful offenders of one year's incarceration. Inasmuch as this 16 year old defendant has never been convicted of a crime or found to be a youthful offender, he is eligible for mandatory adjudication as a youthful offender carrying a maximum penalty of six months incarceration. In this instance, because he must be accorded this mandatory adjudication, the statute requires a single judge trial without a jury. Had the defendant already once been adjudicated a youthful offender thus placing his being treated as such on this occasion within the court's discretion, he would be entitled to trial by jury. Defendant now challenges the…
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People v Moore, People v Doyle... cont
The court values the opinion of Professor Denzer's annotation to section 190.65 that the precise meaning of sec. 251 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was not readily discernible from the language of the statute. People v. Peetz declared a prima facie case to be necessary for indictment but what else, if anything, was required was always something of a mystery. The felony hearing demands a lesser degree of proof than that needed to sustain an indictment or to sustain a conviction. Sec. 180.70 of the Criminal Procedure Law requires the People, in a felony hearing to demonstrate only 'reasonable cause to believe that the defendant committed a felony. Both terms 'legally sufficient evidence' needed for conviction and 'reasonable cause' are defined by section 70.10 of the Criminal Procedure Law. 'Legally sufficient evidence' needed to support conviction, must, if accepted as true, establish every element of the crime, the defendant's…
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Hamilton on the Reliability of Assault Victims' Immediate Accounts
Melissa Hamilton (University of Houston Law Center) has posted The Reliability of Assault Victims’ Immediate Accounts: Evidence from Trauma Studies (Stanford Law & Policy Review, Vol. 26, 2015, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The admission of hearsay qualifying...
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Kansas City Area DUI Checkpoint Update: 9/19/14 - 9/21/14
Kansas City Area DUI Checkpoint Update: 9/19/14 - 9/21/14 Another weekend, and more checkpoints. There's a lot going on this weekend with the Plaza Art Fair, the Royals in town, etc. and the police will be on the look out! Here's what we know so far: 1. The Johnson County Sheriff's Dept. has announced that they will be conducting a DUI Checkpoint in Mission, KS on 9/19/14. Their usual spot for this checkpoint is at Shawnee Mission Pkwy and Nall. 2. The Riley County Police Department in Manhattan, KS has announced that they will have a DUI Saturation Patrol on 9/19/14. According to their press release "Officers involved in the Saturation Patrol will be looking for signs of impaired driving and other traffic violations. Motorists who show signs of alcohol and/or drug consumption will be evaluated and appropriate enforcement action will be taken." As always we will update as we learn more. Check out our article on DUI Checkpoints in KS for more…
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Catch and Release
Federal Judge Richard Kopf at Hercules and the Umpire has this post with a funny cartoon and a serious point. Down in the comments, he concedes that the point is poorly worded in the original post and substitutes this wording:My point is really two fold: (1) most of the folks I see should go to prison and most reasonable observers would agree; (2) in the few "close" cases where a judge must decide between prison and probation, I am not good at making that decision personally and [18 U.S.C.] section 3553(a) is not much help.
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More Pages to Explore .....
