There are plenty of legends surrounding wealthy people. For example, people assume you’re happy if you have lots of money, and several studies support this. Also, people assume you’re smart if you have lots of money. There are plenty of studies to show this is not the case. If intelligence did lead to wealth, I’m sure India would have less poverty (India contains Earth’s lion share of geniuses, FYI), and Christopher Langan would have Trump style buildings with his name on them (Christopher is the smartest human being on Earth–if you subscribe to IQ testing–but his employment isn’t CEO of the latest craze in Silicon Valley, Christopher keeps it low key with such titles as bouncer and laborer. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that”, as Seinfeld taught me, but these aren’t the jobs you’d expect of someone with an IQ higher than Hawking…
Shoplifting and Technology
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Sean Penn’s Criminal Exposure for Dealings with El Chapo
This past Saturday, January 9th, Sean Penn published an extensive article in Rolling Stone detailing his covert trip to Mexico to meet and interview the drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera a/k/a El Chapo, along with Mexican actress Kate Del Castillo. Sean Penn could now be the focus of a criminal investigation and may be charged with crimes in Mexico and possibly the United States because of these dealings. Source: Rollingstone.com After reviewing Sean Penn’s article in detail, his actions could be characterized as aiding and assisting a fugitive or participating in a conspiracy to assist a fugitive. Sean Penn stated in his article all the steps he took to obscure the nature of his travel and its purpose. Under Anti-terrorist laws, a person who knowingly conceals the nature, or location of a terrorist, or who knowing or intending to conceal the whereabouts either assists in the concealment of an escape or conspires to do it can be prosecuted. If Sean Penn was…
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New York DWI Dismissed Because Defendant’s “Body is a Brewery”
DWI charges against a woman in Buffalo, New York, were dismissed based on a surprising defense: “Her body is a brewery.” The woman’s blood-alcohol level was recorded at over four times the legal limit when it should have been between .01 and .05. Her rare condition was not discovered until after her arrest. Her attorney Joseph Marusak submitted medical evidence of the woman’s “auto-brewery syndrome,” which converts high-carbohydrate foods into alcohol. The evidence prompted the New York judge to dismiss her DWI. Dr. Richard Peek, a professor of medicine and biology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has said that the cause of the symptoms is not fully understood. However, it is likely to be based on elevated levels of yeast in the GI tract. When yeast ingest a meal high in carbohydrates, they metabolize the carbs into ethanol. One of the more radical results of this phenomenon, which alters the gut’s bacteria, is…
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News Scan
Crime Soars in Downtown L.A.: An article in last week's News Scan showed that crime was rising all over Los Angeles in all categories, but in Downtown L.A. in particular, violent and property crimes are soaring significantly. Eddie Kim of Los Angeles Downtown News reports that in LAPD's Central Division, which covers nearly all of Downtown, violent crime in 2015 shot up 52 percent over 2014 levels, while property crime spiked 28 percent. Specifically, aggravated assaults jumped 63 percent, robberies soared 42 percent, vehicle thefts surged 65 percent and burglaries increased 43 percent. Central Division Capt. Mike Oreb believes that the factors contributing to the overall rise in crime include gentrification, Downtown's status as a tour destination, the influx of thousands of new residents, a rise in the homeless population and prison-reform policies such as AB 109 and Prop 47. To combat the surge, the LAPD is transferring some…
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STEALING BASES OKAY; STEALING DATA NOT SO MUCH
On January 8, 2016, Christopher Correa, the former director of Baseball Development for the St. Louis Cardinals, pleaded guilty to each count of a five-count criminal information, charging him with felony violations of unauthorized access to a protected computer, in violation of various sections of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030. As part of his written plea agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, Mr. Correa acknowledged that from about March 2013 through March 2014, he accessed the computers of two former Cardinals employees who had subsequently gone to work for the Houston Astros. Specifically, Mr. Correa admitted accessing one of the individuals’ email accounts, and also accessing the Astros’ online database known as Ground Control, which housed confidential data, such as scouting reports, statistics and contract information. In order to gain access to the information of one of the…
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The Myth of ''Ugly Disproportionalities'' in Life Without Parole Sentences
The Heritage Foundation will have a program with the above title from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21. The event page is here. Live streaming will be available. The speaker is Craig Lerner, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor Law, George Mason School of Law. Cully Stimson is the host. The program description follows the break.Critics argue that the American criminal justice system is rife with "ugly disproportionalities" and "brutal penalties on the undeserving." Those same critics often point to the prevalence of the sentence of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). The punishment, conceived decades ago as a substitute for the death penalty, scarcely exists in the rest of the world. Today, while capital punishment wanes in the United States, steadily increasing numbers of defendants are sentenced to LWOP. According to a recent ACLU Report, over 3,000 of the 50,000 inmates serving LWOP were…
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Feds: South Florida Men Rented Out Homes They Didn’t Own
Three men in South Florida are facing federal fraud charges after authorities allege the men took over control of about 80 houses in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, swapped the locks and then rented these units to tenants who had no idea the “landlords” weren’t the rightful owners. The four men, all from Palm Beach County, are facing charges that include mail fraud conspiracy and mail fraud. Bond is being withheld until a judge determines whether they should stay locked up while the case is pending. Authorities say this brazen scheme specifically targeted homes that were owned by a Georgia-based company in the business of buying and renovating homes and then renting them out. It’s unclear whether the men had any direct connection to the company. According to The Sun-Sentinel, the men launched founded a company called RHA Two LLC. This was very similar to the name used by the Georgia Company, which was RHA 2 LLC. In so doing, they were able to…
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The Latest Iterations of the ALI Draft Provisions on Sexual Assault
I've posted my short manuscript addressing changes made since the April 2015 draft entitled Backpedalling in Place: The ALI's Move from "Affirmative" to "Contextual" Consent. It follows up on my previous piece, available here. Here's the abstract: After criticism of...
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Sustained Injustices: Three Exonerees Speak to 60 Minutes about Life after Wrongful Convictions
In a segment which aired on Sunday night, 60 Minutes interviewed three exonerees—Anthony Ray Hinton, Ken Ireland and Julie Baumer –about their lives since being released from prison and declared innocent of wrongful convictions. Hinton was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1985 in Alabama and sentenced to die. On death row, Hinton spent nearly 30 years in solitary confinement in a 5x8 cell. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court said that Hinton had received inadequate defense from his attorney and overturned his conviction. And last year, he was released when ballistic experts were not able to prove that bullets found at the crime scene had come from a gun owned by Hinton’s mother in 1985. Hinton was represented by attorney Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative—a non-profit legal organization based in Alabama. Upon his release, Hinton says that he received neither an apology nor reentry assistance from the state of Alabama.…
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CJLF Welcomes Back Kymberlee Stapleton
CJLF is very pleased to announce an addition to our legal staff. Kymberlee Stapleton was previously a recipient of our 2002-2003 fellowship and did fine work for the cause of justice. She has now returned as a more seasoned and experienced attorney. We will now be able to take on more cases to further advance the cause. She may even find some time to blog here. Welcome back, Kym.
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6 Critical Human Rights Concerns Obama Should Address Tonight
Once more, President Obama will address the nation before the full Congress. Once more, he will lay out his plans for this year, his last in office. While it is true that his administration has helped to usher in notable progress in some areas– like the right to marry for gay and lesbian people and a dramatic increase in the number of people with access to health insurance there are still many urgent issues to be addressed when it comes to human rights for people in the U.S. and around the world, and some promises remain unfulfilled. Tonight, we hope that the president will take this last State of the Union address to touch upon the following issues: GUANTÁNAMO President Obama was elected on a platform of closing the detention site at Guantánamo. He’s pledged to get the job done again and again, including in last year’s State of the Union. Today, the prison is not only still open, but current whispers of the plan to close it suggest a new set of…
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Exonerees call on President Obama to address wrongful conviction at State of the Union
Exonerees and Innocence Project community members call on President Obama to address wrongful conviction at his final State of the Union address. Take a look at highlights: Exonerees speak out: "Dear Mr. President, please address society's need to hold corrupt prosecutors accountable to help prevent the actually innocent in prison and their families from suffering irreparable harm. Proven prosecutorial misconduct stole over 18 yrs of my life, allowing the real perpetrator known to authorities upon my arrest to remain free. Such public safety and human right violations endanger society because corrupt prosecutors in cases like mine are protected against being sued, thereby enjoying no deterrent effect from what laws, applicable to all, mean to protect against absolute power." -Fernando Bermudez, Exoneree Learn more about his case, here. “Was 17 ½ years of my life more costly than recording my…
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Tell President Obama and Congress to take action on criminal justice reform, today!
SIGN THE LETTER, TODAY! Today, two historic events are occurring – President Barack Obama is giving his last State of the Union speech, and for the first time ever, two exonerees (Michael Morton, of Texas, and James Tillman, of Connecticut) will be in the audience. At a time when President Obama and members of Congress in both parties have expressed commitment to reforming our nation’s broken criminal justice system, we, the undersigned urge the President and Congress make preventing wrongful convictions a priority by taking the following actions: The Administration should continue to lead on forensic science reform by establishing and implementing a comprehensive federal strategy to create a forensic science research agenda, a process for evaluating foundational validation of forensic science techniques and scientifically-sound forensic science standards. The Attorney General’s Inter-Agency Reentry Council should review and recommend specifics steps to…
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Gerber & Jackson on Public Support for Police Use of Force
Monica M. Gerber and Jonathan Jackson (London School of Economics & Political Science - Methodology Institute and London School of Economics & Political Science - Department of Methodology) have posted Justifying Violence: Legitimacy, Ideology and Public Support for Police Use...
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Arizona Man Arrested on Felony Drug Charges Following Traffic Stop
On Friday January 8, a Needles man was arrested by Mohave County Sheriff’s deputies after drugs were found in the vehicle of 56-year-old Stewart Randolph Daman during a traffic stop. According to news reports, deputies pulled Daman over at about 11:30 p.m. He was arrested on possession of drug paraphernalia, driving with a suspended license, suspicion of possession of dangerous drugs, failure to pay fines warrant for driving with a suspended license issued in 2007, and a warrant for possession of drug paraphernalia issued by Bullhead City Justice Court. Authorities performed a records check and found Daman had a suspended license as well as outstanding warrants. Upon searching the vehicle deputies found two plastic bags that after field testing proved to be methamphetamine. A glass pipe with burnt residue was also found in the vehicle. When questioned, Daman claimed he did not know the drugs were in the vehicle, and that they could belong to his brother. He was taken…
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The Cost of White Collar Crime Crackdown in Texas Comes Under Scrutiny
Texas has launched a massive crackdown on crimes such as Medicaid fraud, mortgage fraud and other so-called white-collar offenses in recent years. However, the high cost of the initiative that was spearheaded by former attorney General Greg Abbot, now Texas, governor, has come under scrutiny in recent weeks. An editorial in the Dallas Morning News said there was nothing untoward ... Read More The post The Cost of White Collar Crime Crackdown in Texas Comes Under Scrutiny appeared first on .
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Jury Convicts in Case Involving Incentives and Private Loans
Joseph L. Pasquale, 39, Fort Myers, Florida was found guilty by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and four counts of bank fraud. According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Pasquale worked as a real estate sales associate for a brokerage firm based in Cape Coral, Florida. Between […]
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An NYT Hatchet Job on Ted Cruz
David Brooks has this column in the NYT on Ted Cruz, and it can only be described as a hatchet job. CJLF does not endorse candidates and takes no position on the Republican primary.* However, I do think we should correct misrepresentations about the candidates when they fall within our area of expertise. Brooks writes:In 1997, Michael Wayne Haley was arrested after stealing a calculator from Walmart. This was a crime that merited a maximum two-year prison term. But prosecutors incorrectly applied a habitual offender law. Neither the judge nor the defense lawyer caught the error and Haley was sentenced to 16 years.Eventually, the mistake came to light and Haley tried to fix it. Ted Cruz was solicitor general of Texas at the time. Instead of just letting Haley go for time served, Cruz took the case to the Supreme Court to keep Haley in prison for the full 16 years.Some justices were skeptical. "Is there some rule that you can't confess error in your…
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Guilty Plea to Making False Statement In HUD Loan Application
Jason Pond, 38, Spring Hill, Florida, pled guilty to making a false statement in an application to obtain a HUD loan. According to the plea agreement, on September 28, 2010, Pond purchased his home in Spring Hill, Florida, for $110,000. Along with his wife, they received a loan of $49,650 from HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, as a […]
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Advance Fee Scheme Sentencing
Tony Huy Havens, 42, Modesto, California, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison for his role in two mortgage fraud schemes. Havens had earlier pleaded guilty to committing mail fraud and wire fraud in the two schemes, which were charged in separate criminal cases. According to the indictment in the first scheme, […]
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