A substitute teacher from New Port Richey was arrested Friday after investigators allege he molested two children more than 50 times, according to the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office. The 68-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and lewd and lascivious battery. His alleged victims were between the ages of 8 and 9 and 11 and 15, with the last molestation occurring in 2012, according to reports. The man has been fired by the School Board and is being held without bond at the Land O’ Lakes Detention Center. Child molestation is a serious charge that carries not only grave legal consequences, but has severe social consequences as well. The sad truth is that these types of accusations can ruin an innocent person’s life. A conviction of almost any type of child molestation charge will result in being labeled as a sex offender for life, which can destroy relationships with family and friends. False accusations of child…
Pasco County Substitute Teacher Accused of Molesting 2 Children
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Adventist Health System pays $115 million to settle whistleblowers’ suits
On September 21, the Department of Justice announced that Adventist Health Systems had agreed to pay $115 million to settle civil allegations – originally brought in two separate whistleblower suits, that the company paid unlawful volume-based bonuses to physicians, and submitted miscoded claims for reimbursement. According to DOJ’s press release: Adventist Health System has agreed to pay the United States $115 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by maintaining improper compensation arrangements with referring physicians and by miscoding claims, the Justice Department announced today. Adventist is a non-profit healthcare organization that operates hospitals and other health care facilities in 10 states. * * * The settlement announced today resolves allegations that Adventist submitted false claims to the Medicare and Medicaid programs for services rendered to patients referred by employed physicians…
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L-3 Communications pays $4.63 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations
On September 28, the Department of Justice announced that L-3 Communications Corp. and two related entities have agreed to pay $4.63 million to settle civil claims, originally brought by a former independent contractor, that the companies mischarged costs for personnel being deployed to Afghanistan, by essentially rounding up their time in stateside centers. According to DOJ’s press release: L-3 Communications Corporation, Vertex Aerospace LLC and L-3 Communications Integrated Systems LP (collectively L-3) have agreed to pay $4.63 million to resolve allegations that they inflated labor hours for time spent by independent contractors at the military’s Continental U.S. Replacement Centers (CRC) in Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Bliss, Texas, preparing to deploy to overseas posts to support U.S. military operations abroad. The CRCs prepare individuals for deployment by providing orientation briefings, training, health screenings, payroll processing and…
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Burke on Teaching the Fourth Amendment Using Pop Culture
Alafair S. Burke (Hofstra University - Maurice A. Deane School of Law) has posted Got a Warrant?: Breaking Bad and the Fourth Amendment (Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Forthcoming) This Article explores the advantages of using pop culture to...
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Senate Judiciary Committee moving forward next week on Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015
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Fighting a Connecticut Domestic Violence Arrest? Don’t Get Ambushed by Your Spouse—Hire a Top Connecticut Divorce Family Lawyer to Consult Behind the Scenes
The best Stamford, Greenwich and Darien Connecticut criminal lawyers frequently see Connecticut domestic violence arrests get nasty. A verbal or physical altercation between spouses can lead to an arrest, which can subsequently lead to one spouse consulting with a divorce lawyer. Then the gloves come off, and the next thing you know, your husband or wife is trying to parlay their role as a “victim” in their Connecticut domestic violence case to their advantage in divorce court. It’s a scene that top Stamford, Darien and Greenwich Connecticut criminal lawyers and attorneys see all too often. These “victims” dispatch their big ticket divorce lawyers into Connecticut criminal court to demand super-restrictive protective orders, onerous conditions of release (such as drug testing and anger management), and even worse, restraining orders that get you kicked out of your own home. But have hope—there are several ways to throw a wrench into this…
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"Minnesota court rules warrantless DWI blood tests unconstitutional"
From Jurist: The Minnesota Court of Appeals [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that an officer must obtain a warrant in order to test the blood of a person suspected of driving while intoxicated (DWI). Minnesota's implied consent law, Statute...
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News Scan
CA Inmate Firefighting Unit has Included Violent Inmates for Years: Two days after the AP reported that California corrections officials were considering expanding the criteria for inmate firefighters to include inmates with violent backgrounds, and one day after the AP reported that expansion would no longer be considered, corrections officials admitted Wednesday that 40 percent of the state's inmate firefighting crew have previous convictions for violent offenses. The AP reports that corrections spokesman Jeffrey Callison says inmates with violent histories have been serving on the unit since the 1990s, and claims that the corrections department provided inaccurate information to the AP earlier this week because of "differing definitions of what constitutes a violent background." As of September 30, 1,441 of the 3,732 inmate firefighters had committed a crime deemed violent under the California penal code. Mike Lopez, president of the…
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Seattle Seahawks' Derrick Coleman Suspected of Vehicular Assault, Hit and Run
Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman has been arrested on suspicion of hit and run and vehicular assault. The NFL player allegedly walked away from a crash that he caused on the evening of October 14 which resulted in a collar bone injury to another driver. According to the Seattle Times, Coleman is being held without bail at King County Jail following the arrest in Bellevue. A breathalyzer test was administered by police officers at the scene, but it is unclear at the time of the Seattle Times report whether or not Coleman was found to be intoxicated. He was arrested without incident. Coleman has also been indefinitely suspended by the Seattle Seahawks, where he has emerged as a valuable special teams player. The team front office says it will re-evaluate its decision once more facts come to light. Other Potential Factors Coleman, a UCLA alum, has also been "essentially deaf" since the time he was three years old. He wears hearing aids, has published an…
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13-year-old Invents Drunk Driving Prevention Device
Krishna Reddy is a 13-year-old from Wichita Falls, Texas. He has invented a device to detect whether people are driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol. The device measures pupil dilation to determine when someone has ingested a substance. Our …The post 13-year-old Invents Drunk Driving Prevention Device appeared first on Colorado Springs Accident Attorney | Quality Legal.
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Herndon v. Herndon and Pleading the Fifth
A recent court of appeals decision has stirred up a lot of discussion on our hall about the scope of the Fifth Amendment right to be free from self-incrimination. The case is Herndon v. Herndon, __ N.C. App. __ (October 6, 2015), and it arose from a defendant’s appeal from the entry of a domestic violence protective order against her. Before the defendant testified in the hearing to determine whether acts of domestic violence occurred, the presiding judge cautioned the defendant’s attorney: “I’m not doing no Fifth Amendment.” There’s really no question that the warning was, as one appellate judge put it, “less than artful,” but did it violate the defendant’s rights? These facts are simply too juicy to skip. In May 2014, Steven Herndon filed a complaint and motion for a domestic violence protective order against his wife, Alison Herndon. Mr. Herndon alleged that Ms. Herndon had drugged his food and drink on…
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Why the United States was Designed as a Republic
Ben Franklin famously replied when asked about the government that was created by the Constitution: “A republic, if you can keep it.” “Democracy ” Not In Any Founding Document The US is a Constitutional Republic, not a “democracy.” No American founding document, not the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, or the Constitution mention […]
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Gallup: Solid Majority Continue to Support Death Penalty
Andrew Dugan has this report for the Gallup Poll with the above title.Still, there is no denying that the opponents have made progress. The number of people answering "not in favor" to Gallup's poorly worded basic question is the highest it has been since before Furman v. Georgia in 1972, when the Supreme Court's audacious act of judicial activism precipitated a sharp drop in opposition and a sharp jump in support.On the better-worded, but still less than ideal, question of whether the death penalty is presently imposed too often, about right, or not often enough, the sum of about right and not enough is still 2/3 of the population. That remains a powerful supermajority in favor. Dugan writes:By many metrics -- the number of states that have banned the death penalty, the number of executions carried out or the actual population of inmates currently on death row -- the death penalty appears to be losing popularity in statehouses and…
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Joshua Tepfer Urges Illinois to Review Convictions Based on Debunked Science
In an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday, Exoneration Project attorney Joshua Tepfer called for Illinois to review convictions in which debunked forensic methods were used as evidence in trial. Tepfer cited the 2009 National Academy of Sciences report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, which put into question the effectiveness of many forensic methods commonly used in criminal investigations, such as hair microscopy and bite mark analysis. The report discussed how the reliance upon these unreliable and scientifically unproved methods has resulted in many wrongful convictions. Tepfer noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s review of cases involving microscopic hair analysis testimony from its own experts has resulted in exonerations, including that of Santae Tribble. Tepfer suggests that the state of Illinois follow the example of Texas and form a commission to review individual cases in which unreliable forensic…
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Prosecutors Press for Executions Despite Questions of Innocence
The ghost of Glenn Ford will forever haunt former Louisiana prosecutor Marty Stroud. Failing to learn from Stroud’s sad example, prosecutors in Bowie County, Texas, relentlessly press to execute a potentially innocent man, despite evidence that his conviction is tainted by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and false testimony. Don’t know who Marty Stroud is? He’s a former prosecutor in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. He sent an innocent man to Louisiana’s death row. 30 Years on Death Row in Angola Prison for a Crime he Didn’t Commit Glenn Ford was imprisoned on death row in Louisiana’s infamous Angola Prison for thirty years before he was exonerated in 2014. Ford died this past June of lung cancer. His brief period of freedom was consumed with his futile struggle against a voracious, terminal illness. Stroud was the lead prosecutor in the 1983 murder case against Ford. The prosecutor has admitted that he…
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Minnesota Man Found Guilty of Killing Police Officer Appeals Conviction
On February 2 of this year, 40-year-old Brian Fitch Sr. was found guilty of the murder of Scott Patrick, a Mendota Heights police officer; he was also convicted of the attempted murder of three other officers. Fitch allegedly shot Patrick during a traffic stop in West St. Paul in July of 2014. According to news reports, Fitch was a known drug dealer. He was driving a Pontiac Grand Am the day of the shooting, a vehicle that did not belong to him. Because of this, Patrick was not aware of Fitch’s criminal history when he stopped him, and was shot three times from the driver’s side window. He died instantly, although eyewitnesses to the incident nor squad car video could positively identify Fitch. Fitch was arrested in St. Paul later that day and charged with murder and attempted murder following a shootout that took place prior to his arrest. It was announced on KARE 11 yesterday that Fitch is now appealing his conviction. Fitch claims that he should have been tried…
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Angel Gonzalez is Taking Your Questions
Join Angel Gonzalez for a Q&A on October 22 at 11 a.m. on Facebook. Gonzalez was exonerated on March 10, 2015 after serving over 20 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. In 1994, Gonzalez was misidentified by a rape victim as her assailant. After he was arrested, he was then misled by police into signing a false confession. Ask Angel a question about his experience in a few different ways: Leave your question in the comment section below. Like @innocence on Twitter and tweet your question out using "#innocencechat". Like us on Facebook and join Angel on our page at 11 a.m. on October 22. Get started! More on Angel, here.
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Expungement on the Horizon?
United States District Judge Raymond J. Dearie, a former prosecutor who has never been mistaken for a liberal jurist, has publicly called on the federal criminal justice system to find a way to allow for the expungement of criminal convictions for persons convicted of certain crimes. It is an important idea that is worthy of discussion, both for the benefit of those convicted and society as a whole.As the NYLJ reported today, Judge Dearie recently issued a decision in Stephenson v. United States, 10 MC 712 (RJD), in which he addressed a request for expungement from Dawn Stephenson, who Judge Dearie had sentenced in 1993 to one day of imprisonment, several months of home confinement, and four years of supervised release following her plea to bank fraud. The government opposed the petition, arguing that the circumstances were not sufficiently extreme to warrant the relief.Unfortunately for Ms. Stephenson, the court agreed that the current law compelled the denial of the petition,…
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AU REVOIR???
BREAKINGSeveral unsubstantiated rumors have been circulating that Friday October 16, 2016 will be the LAST DAY of operations for Au Bon Pain.Bad coffee. Good cuban coffee. Fair food. Won't get you very far in life these days.More when we know it.Site Feed
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MacDonald on Cyberterrorism and Enemy Criminal Law
Stuart K. MacDonald (Swansea University College of Law) has posted Cyberterrorism and Enemy Criminal Law (Cyber War: Law and Ethics for Virtual Conflicts (edited by Jens David Ohlin, Kevin Govern and Claire Finkelstein) (OUP, 2015)) on SSRN. Here is the...
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