(I need to preface this post with a caveat: It is very long because it addresses difficult issues involved in deciding when a Public Records Act applies to a state employee's use of his/her cell phone to conduct official business. I may be wrong, but I suspect other courts will rely on this opinion.)The Supreme Court of Washington recently examined issues that arose from the state’s Public Records Act and a County Prosecutor who used “his private cell phone to conduct government business.” Nissen v. Pierce County, 357 P.3d 45 (2015). The court begins its opinion by explaining that[f]ive years ago we concluded that the Public Records Act (PRA), chapter 42.56 [Revised Code of Washington], applied to a record stored on a personal computer, recognizing that `[i]f government employees could circumvent the PRA by using their home computers for government business, the PRA could be drastically undermined.’ O'Neill v. City of…
The Public Employee, the Private Cell Phone and the Public Records Act
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Foreign Fighters and ISIS: What the West Should be Doing
Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council’s counter-terrorism committee held a conference at which several experts spoke about ISIS and foreign fighters. I found this media recap of the presentation of Scott Atran from the Centre for Resolution of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Southern California Sheriff’s Department Touts Gang Enforcement Focus
In October of this year, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department this week showcased a program that focuses on gang enforcement with two new gang teams and a new homicide team. This program is set to be formed from redirected resources from the newly defunct narcotics enforcement team. It has been reported that over the past six months, the Desert Gang Team has made over 250 arrests, seized 58 firearms and documented 347 gang members and associates. The shift is a response to California’s Proposition 47, approved last year, which reduced the penalties for the possession of most controlled substances from felonies to misdemeanors. As a result, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Narcotics Division was re-designated the Gangs/Narcotics Division. The Valley Gang Team is responsible for the metropolitan areas of the county from the borders with Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties extending to the Yucaipa Valley, including the…
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No charges filed in fatal Jacksonville crash where tractor-trailer hit pedestrian
No charges will be filed in what police initially described as a fatal hit-and-run crash that killed a Jacksonville woman in October. The woman was hit by the back of a tractor-trailer and then dragged down the road as the driver left a Jacksonville parking lot, according to a report in the Florida Times-Union. Police were looking for the driver and a private organization had offered $3,000 for anyone who had information on the driver, the newspaper reported. Police eventually tracked him down and interviewed him about the incident, the newspaper reported. The investigation revealed that the driver did not know he hit the woman and the state opted not to file any criminal charges against the driver, the newspaper reported. Florida law requires that if a person is seriously injured in a traffic crash the driver must remain on the scene, contact authorities and “shall render to any person injured in the crash reasonable assistance, including the carrying, or the…
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Happy Holidays: Ticket and Tax Amnesty for Chicagoans!
Two parking tickets, tucked beneath a single windshield wiper, await a likely angry driver when he returns to his vehicle on a street in downtown Doylestown PA. 2008-04-05. Great news, if you are an individual or a business that owes debt to the City of Chicago. The city has announced that it will be running an amnesty program, referred to in the 2016 Budget as a Debt Relief Program, that will forgive eligible debt. Some driving-related debts are waivable under the program, including penalties and fines associated with parking tickets and moving violations. There are also non-driving debts and even tax debts eligible for inclusion in the Debt Relief Program. This program will not last long, and if you can, you should take advantage of it as soon as possible. The amnesty program begins on Sunday, November 15, 2015 and ends on December 31, 2015. What Types of Tickets Qualify for Amnesty? Debts that are eligible for amnesty under the Debt Relief Program include: Unpaid…
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BGer 6B_1025/2015: Die Verhältnismässigkeit einer Nachfahrkontrolle der Polizei im Rahmen von Art. 14 StGB
Eine Nachfahrkontrolle ist gem. Art. 6 lit. c Ziff. 2 VSKV-ASTRA eine Geschwindigkeitskontrolle, die durch Nachfahren und Ermittlung der Geschwindigkeit durch einen Geschwindigkeitsvergleich zwischen dem Fahrzeug der Polizei und demjenigen des Kontrollierten durchgeführt wird. Im Rahmen einer solchen Nachfahrkontrolle hat die Kantonspolizei im Raum Zürich auf der Autobahn einen Autofahrer verfolgt, der nebst einer Geschwindigkeitsüberschreitung durch diverse Fahrmanöver mehrere grobe Verkehrsregelverletzungen im Sinne von Art. 90 Abs. 2 SVG und diverse Übertretungen begangen hat. Zur Beweissicherung hat die Kantonspolizei diese Fahrmanöver auf Video aufgezeichnet.Der Beschuldigte monierte, dass diese Videoaufzeichnung in strafbarer Weise erhoben worden sei, weshalb das Beweismittel gem. Art. 141 Abs. 2 StPO nicht als Beweismittel verwertbar seien. Auf dem von der Polizei aufgezeichneten Video ist zu erkennen, dass auch die Polizei anlässlich…
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Pre-Order Your Innocent T-Shirt!
Shop now at shop.innocenceproject.org Innocent t-shirts available for pre-order with free shipping! Use code: 2015THANKS.shop.innocenceproject.org (Free shipping only for domestic U.S. orders less than 2lbs. Ends 12/1. T-Shirts will ship 12/14.) Shop now at shop.innocenceproject.org
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State Supreme Court: Punishing Refusal to Submit to Blood Test Voids Consent
Two days ago, I posted about the growing trend of states to criminalize refusals to submit to blood-alcohol testing in DUI cases. See Is It a Crime to Refuse to Give Blood in a DUI Arrest? This punishment for refusing to incriminate yourself seems yet another example of what I’ve repeatedly referred to as "The DUI Exception to the Constitution". And, coincidentally, exactly two days ago the Hawaii Supreme Court handed down a decision reversing a DUI conviction — on the grounds that the defendant’s consent to a blood-alcohol test was invalid because it had been obtained through coercion. The "consent", the Court said, was not freely and voluntarily given since it was given out of fear that refusing would result in criminal punishment. State Supreme Court Ruling May Affect Hundreds of DUI Cases Honolulu, HI. Nov. 25 — A Hawaii Supreme Court decision today could affect hundreds of outstanding drunken…
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Nun Arrested on Suspicion of Drunk Driving
According to a recent news article from Fox News, a nun was just arrested for drunk driving, and the arrest was recorded on video, including when she took the field sobriety test wearing a religious habit. Authorities in New Jersey have said that the alleged drunk driver was in fact a nun from Philadelphia. They said she was pulling into the parking lot of an auto parts store in reverse and crashed into the store’s front door. Luckily, the store was closed at the time, so no customers or employees were injured. When the owner of the store arrived to work the day after this alleged drunk driving accident, an officer told him that it was a drunk nun that crashed her car into his building and that they managed to arrest her a little further down the road after she left the scene of the crash. The nun was driving a Ford F-150 pick up truck at the time of the alleged drunk driving incident. As one might expect, the owner of the auto shop was very surprised, because, as he…
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[VIDEO] Traffic Myth: The Handheld Breath Test Does Not Come Into Court
If you think the results of the handheld breath test stay on the side of the road, think again! Contact me today about your DUI/DWI case. Video Transcription Traffic myth: the handheld breath test stays on the side of the road. That is false. Hi, I’m Andre Flusche, your Virginia traffic and misdemeanor attorney. I’m here to discuss with you a very common traffic myth that unfortunately sometimes the police actually encourage when they’re doing an investigation for DUI or DWI. The handheld breath test, otherwise known as the PBT, or some people call it the breathalyzer, but it’s a handheld unit. In Virginia, a lot of people think that that stays on the side of the road; that result does not come into court. When I watch DUI videos for clients, sometimes officers even tell people that. “Oh, this is just between you and me. It doesn’t come into court. It’s just to give me a feeling of where you are and give us a number.” That is…
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Injury Crash off Golf Course Road in Jerome County
IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE - generated by our News Release ListServer DO NOT REPLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDAHO STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE District 4 Patrol 218 West Yakima, Jerome, ID 83338-5904 (208) 324-6000 Fax (208) 324-7897 For Immediate Release: November 27, 2015 11:50 a.m. Please direct questions to the District Office On Friday, November 27, 2015, at approximately 7:45 a.m., the Idaho State Police investigated a two-vehicle, injury crash at 500 Golf Course Road, north of the Jerome Country Club in Jerome County. Maneesia McConnell, 20, of Twin Falls, Idaho, was driving eastbound on 500 South in a 1996 Ford Contour. Robert Kinghorn, 57, of Jerome, Idaho, was driving southbound on Golf Course Road in a 2014 Subaru Crosstrek. McConnell failed to stop at the stop sign and was struck by Kinghorn's vehicle. McConnell was transported via personal vehicle to Saint Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin…
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Might Prez Obama seek to do something bold on the death penalty in his final year?
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Perlin & Lynch on the UN Convention and Institutionalized Persons with Disabilities
Michael L. Perlin and Alison J. Lynch (New York Law School and Disability Rights New York) have posted 'The Distant Ships of Liberty': Why Criminology Needs to Take Seriously International Human Rights Laws that Apply to Persons with Disabilities on...
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Getting your Licesne back - Michigan Driver's License and Clearance cases in Reverse - Part 2
In part 1 of this article, we began our backwards look at the Michigan driver's license restoration and clearance process, starting from the moment you actually win your license to the point where I correct and edit the letters of support. As I noted, the letters of support and the substance abuse evaluation, which we'll pick up with in this installment, need to be cross-checked with each other, and with all the other evidence in your case in order to make sure everything is cohesive and consistent. The substance abuse evaluation is, without a doubt, the real foundation of a Michigan license appeal. There are loads of things that need to be managed in order to get this part right. To start, I can HONESTLY count on 1 hand the number of evaluations I have seen in my 25-plus years, done by evaluators other than the few I use, that are good enough to win a license reinstatement case. The overwhelming majority of evaluations I have seen that were done outside of my…
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Extortion, Government Style.
If you want to know why companies settle with the government, even when they aren't guilty of anything, look no further than Ally Financial LLC's $98 million "no admit or deny" settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) over...
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Spotlighting why ending the drug war could make a big dent in mass incarceration
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Zeidman on The Failure of the Criminal Court
Steven Zeidman (CUNY School of Law) has posted Due Process and the Failure of the Criminal Court (Fordham Urban Law Journal, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2015) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: To anyone remotely familiar with the workings of...
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"Prisons as Panacea or Pariah?: The Countervailing Consequences of the Prison Boom on the Political Economy of Rural Towns"
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Guidelines for Police Body Cameras Effective January 1, 2016
Comprehensive guidelines for the use of police body cameras are among the several important provisions of Public Act 99-0352, effective January 1, 2016. While the new law will not require body cameras, it creates a policy for their use. The bill aims to also protect privacy by providing for times where officers do not need to use the cameras. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides that only certain types of recordings can be disclosed when a FOIA request is made. These recordings include but are not limited to when a firearm is discharged by and officer or when someone is seriously injured or killed. The hope is that the expanded use of body cameras will improve the behavior of police officers and citizens while also increasing transparency. The State will help fund the body cameras through a $5 increase in traffic tickets. It is estimated that the body cameras will cost $5.6 million over two years. Other provisions in the bill include requiring annual in-service…
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Common Black Friday Crimes
Black Friday is here, and that means millions of people will head out to the retail stores or the outlet malls to get the best deals on all their holiday shopping. But Black Friday also has a more sinister side, full of crime and violence. Today, we take a closer look at some crimes that are more common on Black Friday. Black Friday Crimes Here’s a list of some of the more common Black Friday crimes, and how you can stay safe. Shoplifting – The most common crime committed on Black Friday (outside of speeding on the way to the store) is shoplifting. Retailers lose more than $32 billion to shoplifters and employee theft every year, and although stores have more employees working on Black Friday, it’s impossible to police everybody. It only take a few seconds to slip a pair of earrings in your pocket or a video game in your backpack. We don’t recommend it, and the fines can add up quickly. Theft – This type of theft is much more serious and…
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