It should come as no surprise people do things while drunk they would not ordinarily do while sober. However, being intoxicated is not a defense to their negligent actions. In fact, it is the very basis for establishing negligence in drunk driving accident lawsuits. According to a recent news article from the Boston Herald, one alleged intoxicated driver is said to have "played chicken" with police during his drunk driving arrest. Authorities say a 42-year-old defendant was recently arrested on his fifth drunk driving charge. Defendant is alleged to have crashed his truck into two parked cars. When police first found defendant around 1:30 a.m., he allegedly rammed one of the responding officer's police cruisers with his truck and tried to drive away. Police chased defendant to Malden, Massachusetts, where officers say he aimed his truck at second police cruiser. At this point, defendant is said to have tried to crash into the police car, but the officer…
DUI Suspect "Plays Chicken" With Massachusetts Police
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Case o' The Week: Down for the Count(s) - Hertler and Max Time for Supervised Release Violations
Time served on supervised release violations reduces exposure on future S/R terms. Except when it doesn’t.United States v. Hertler, 2015 WL 178350 (9thCir. Jan. 15, 2015), decision available here.Players:Decision by Judge Paez, joined by Judges Pregerson and Watford. Hard-fought Hon. Judge Richard Paezappeal by D. Montana AFPD Andrew Nelson.Facts: Hertler plead guilty to possession and distribution of child porn. Id. at *1. In addition to a custodial term, the district court imposed a thirty-six month concurrent term of supervised release. Id. Soon after release Hertler’s PO filed a Form 12 alleging several violations. Id. Hertler admitted the allegations, was revoked, and sentenced to “consecutive terms of nine months of imprisonment on Count 1 and three months on Count 2.” Id.The court also imposed concurrent terms of supervised release on each of the two counts. Id. Within two weeks from release on this violation, Hertler was charged with…
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Beards, Prisons, Religion, and Federalism
Today the U.S. Supreme Court decided Holt v. Hobbs, No. 13-6827, regarding a prisoner's right to have a religiously mandated beard under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). The Court decided unanimously that a 1/2 inch beard posed no threat to an institutional need that outweighed the prisoner's right to free exercise of religion. The state had not articulated a good reason for not allowing it.The result in this case doesn't bother me too much. I am more concerned about the more extravagant applications of RLUIPA, such as the worshippers of Odin and their Annual Pork Feast. No, I'm not making this up. RLUIPA is the result of an odd back-and-forth between Congress and the Supreme Court and some political odd bedfellows. The history is traced on pages 2 and 3 of the opinion. Congress enacted RLUIPA and its sister statute, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA),…
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Hoping for (but not expecting) some mention of sentencing reform in 2015 State of the Union
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Evidentiary Rulings – Preserving the Record: 5 Rules Every Judge (and attorney) Must Know (15-02)
Update Focus: You are upset at your judge’s evidentiary ruling(s). You are convinced the courts legal analysis is seriously flawed and you believe you could win on appeal. Preserving the court record is one of the fundamental duties of all judges and attorneys. However, winning an appeal by arguing evidentiary error is exceedingly hard to do. This Update will focus on the 5 most important rules that attorneys and judges must follow in order to preserve an evidentiary ruling for appeal. CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO READ MORE: PendletonUpdate15-02
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What Can We Learn From The Vandy Trial ?
The Vandy trial is now well into its second week of testimony. It is a story of college students , alcohol , sexual assault and rape on a young student who was passed out. You look at the photo of the defendants and they look like young college kids. They were football players at a top ranked school . So what can we learn from this case. Maybe we should use this trial to encourage a frank discussion with our children about sexual assault and alcohol. It is not morally acceptable to commit a sexual assault a person who was passed out. This behavior seems to be rampant from the Vandy case to the high school football players in Steubenville , Ohio. Maybe we should talk to our kids. Use this case as a teaching tool to show that this type of behavior cannot be tolerated. Would you rather have this talk or visit your child in prison.
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Verhoeven on Legal Assistance Prior to and During Police Interrogation
Willem-Jan Verhoeven (Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)) has posted Perspectives on Changes in the Right to Legal Assistance Prior to and During Police Interrogation (Erasmus Law Review, Vol. 7, No. 4, 2014) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The requirement of...
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Connecticut Massage Parlor Patronizing Prostitution Arrests Continue
The recent raid of a Wilton Connecticut massage parlor and arrests in Stamford, Greenwich and Danbury for Patronizing Prostitution under CGS 53a-83 and Prostitution under CGS 53a-82 remind us that Connecticut massage parlors are prime targets for Connecticut police prostitution stings. But are the “Johns” and customers of Westport, Wilton and Stamford Connecticut massage parlors really at risk of getting arrested? And if your name is found in credit card records, customer lists or phone records of these massage parlors, can you get arrested in Stamford or Greenwich Connecticut for Patronizing Prostitution under 53a-83? Possibly—keep reading to learn more… The Frequency of Massage Parlor Stings in Fairfield County Connecticut The best Stamford Connecticut criminal lawyers and best Danbury Connecticut criminal attorneys have seen many raids on Stamford, Danbury, and Darien Connecticut massage parlors over the years. In 2012, Darien Connecticut police…
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Arguing One's Own Screw-Ups
One of the problems with allowing convicts to argue that their lawyers were ineffective, not just at trial but at every step of the review process, is that every time such a claim is raised we will hear an argument that a new lawyer must be appointed. After all, we can't expect a lawyer to argue his own incompetence or dereliction of duty, can we? But where does this end, if cases can be reopened without limit based on a claim the prior lawyer screwed it up?Today in Christeson v. Roper, No. 14-6873, the Supreme Court holds summarily that the Federal District Court in Missouri should have appointed new lawyers to argue for relief after the first set blew the deadline. The Court does not hold that relief should actually be granted. Justices Alito and Thomas dissent from the Court's summary treatment, believing "plenary review would have been more appropriate in this case."Under Coleman v. Thompson (1991), the tailspin of each lawyer…
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"Puzzling Death of a Prosecutor Grips Argentina"
From The New York Times: Police sentries guarded the federal prosecutor’s luxury high-rise building. His door on the 13th floor had been locked from the inside, and a gun with a spent cartridge was found on the floor near his...
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Man Receives 3 Year Prison Term for Lying on Loan Application
Mortgage Fraud Blog. Jayesh Dahyabhai Patel, 49, Knoxville, Tennessee, was sentenced on Jan. 15, 2015, by the Honorable Leon Jordan, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 42 months in federal prison. Patel was also ordered to pay restitution of $2,806,438.20 to First Community Bank and serve five years of supervised release upon his release from prison. Patel was indicted in May 2014 and pleaded guilty in July 2014 to bank fraud. He admitted engaging in a scheme from approximately January 2009 to August 2011 to defraud First Community Bank of East Tennessee, Kingsport, Tenn., in connection with an application for a loan to his business, QIS Knoxville, LLC, by providing false tax returns to induce First Community Bank to issue the loan for the purchase and renovation of a Knoxville hotel. Patel further schemed to defraud First Community Bank by providing false invoices to induce the bank to disburse loan funds and by providing additional false tax returns in order to increase the…
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Sen. Leahy, Holding Forth on Mandatory Minimums
For the last eight years, and until just a few days ago, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, an extremely powerful position. In this piece from the Marshall Project, Sen Leahy tells us what the President should say tonight about criminal justice reform:The biggest issue facing our justice system today is our mass incarceration problem. The president has said before that we should enact laws that ensure "our crime policy is not only tough, but also smart." But tonight, while he has the attention of every member of Congress and the American people, I want to hear the president say that he supports an end to all mandatory minimum sentences, as I do. Mandatory minimums are costly, unfair, and do not make our country safer. For too long they have served as an easy way to score cheap political points: Want to prove you're tough on crime? Just add another mandatory minimum to the law. No need to bother…
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"Retired Judge Nancy Gertner on sexual assault investigations on campus"
Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy links to and excerpts this article, "[a] very interesting and thoughtful article . . . by the author of “In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate,” among other things sharply criticizing Harvard’s...
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Shami Witness: Police Identify Potentially Criminal Tweet
The Indian press reports today on the evidence that will be used against Shami Witness. A key piece will be a tweet by Shami in response to repeated requests by a would-be militant recruit using the handle @TalabAlHaqq for information on how to make... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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"End of an Era? The Impact of Drug Law Reform in New York City"
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State of the Union
How is Obama doing? I'm just tuning in to the State of the Union. (Added: the full text of his speech is here.) Update: Obama seems re-energized, confident and relaxed. Other points: Lots of red states, blue states, United States... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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How Texas prisons struggling with cost concerns innovate with telemedicine
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A (too) brief 2015 State of the Union mention of criminal justice issues
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Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Affirms Jamaica Plain Convenience Store Murder Conviction
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today affirmed the conviction of a man who gunned down a Jamaica Plain convenience store clerk in 2009. The name of the case is Commonwealth v. Corliss. A jury found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery while masked, and illegal possession of a gun. On December 26, 2009, a customer entered a convenience store on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain and found the victim lying on the floor behind the counter, gasping for air. Paramedics arrived shortly thereafter and transported the victim to the hospital where he died of a gunshot wound to his chest. The police obtained the surveillance video taken inside and outside of the store and saw a white motor vehicle stop near the store immediately before the murder. A person wearing a hat and a bulky coat, and carrying a backpack, walked to the car and talked to the driver. The car then pulled away. Approximately eleven minutes later, a person…
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Man arrested in Las Vegas for anti-cop Facebook rants
Recently Dustin McCaskill of Colorado was arrested in Las Vegas for reportedly making death threats to police on Facebook. Prior to arrest, the FBI had warned him to cease publishing threats on his Facebook page, which is dedicated to showcasing corrupt law enforcement. Presently McCaskill is in federal custody and facing charges of interstate communications with intent to extort. Some of the defendant's reported Facebook postings include: “Hey FBI, how about I kill one of your foot soldiers next time they try to raid me at gunpoint on a warrantless raid? How’s that sound?”; “I’m threatening to kill a cop or FBI agent. They have put me in fear for my life with warrantless raids at gunpoint … Now, come arrest me you (expletive) cowards. I just made a threat. I’m going to be the pigs worst nightmare. Come get me.”; and “I’m going to kill an officer or two and let them take me out. What the (expletive) are they…
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