Added to the list of words devoid of meaning at institutions of higher learning is the word “tolerance.” A student at the University of Houston, Rohini Sethi, found that out the hard way. She was diverse and inclusive, allegedly liberal values. However, judging by the reaction of the social justice warriors on the U of H campus, Sethi’s innocent post is being reacted to as if she burned a cross in front of the student center. Rohini Sethi, a young woman of color whose conformity to the values of the mob allowed her to hold the position of student body vice president, expressed an opinion on Facebook following the murder of five Dallas cops. Shortly after the July 7 shooting in Dallas that killed five officers, Rohini Sethi went on Facebook and opined “Forget #BlackLivesMatter; more like AllLivesMatter.” The statement was later deleted, but only after numerous UH students denounced it as incredibly offensive or even hateful. More like…
The New Tolerance At University of Houston
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Two Words Say It All: Body Bags
The words first came out during a rally in support of police following the murders of cops in Dallas and Baton Rouge. Granted, whipping up the groundlings is a time for simplistic slogans, not thoughtful nuance. “Target our citizens, target our police, and you’re going home in a body bag,” Mangano said, to thunderous applause at Eisenhower Park, where hundreds of firefighters representing every Nassau fire department and some from Suffolk County rallied in support of police. Ed Mangnano is the Nassau County Executive, having won election as a sacrificial lamb candidate against the incumbent, Tom Suozzi, in 2009. It was one of those shocking upset, not the least to his own party, who would have run someone who wasn’t a blithering idiot had they realized they could win. But Suozzi took his re-election for granted, and boom, Mangnano took the election. And now, in his second term after beating Suozzi in earnest, he’s no longer considered a…
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Bruce Muehfelder of Southwest Ranches, Florida Arrested for Possession of Child Pornography
Bruce Muehfelder of Southwest Ranches, Florida was arrested on July 28 after authorities allegedly seized hundreds of printed pictures of children and boxes of children’s clothing during a raid of his home. Muehfelder, 62, faces 31 counts of possession of child pornography. During his first-appearance court session last Friday, a judge ordered him held in lieu of $155,000 bond. The judge also forbade Muehfelder from using devices that can connect him to the Internet should he manage to post bail. News sources did not specify a lawyer for Muehler. According to the arrest report, police received five tips over the past year from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children about persons who were distributing pornographic pictures on Twitter. Police launched an investigation in an attempt to confirm that all five tips could be linked back to the same person, and they allegedly managed to link two of the Twitter handles to an email account purportedly owned by…
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A Woman In The White House, Day 2
The first president was a man, John Hanson. Few people count him, however, and so his name has faded into obscurity. Hundreds of years later, a woman was the candidate for vice president of a major party, Geraldine Ferraro. She lost, but not because she was a woman. She had the misfortune to run with Walter Mondale, who was crushed by Ronald Reagan. There were national leaders elsewhere who were women, Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher. And there was the first credible candidate for president, Elizabeth Dole, who ran in 2000, and lost to George W. Bush. He was followed in office by Barack Obama, the first black president. In 2016, the question is posed whether the United States is ready for a woman president. We’ve been ready for years, decades perhaps. But it’s an immature question, despite many who feel deeply moved by Hillary Clinton’s nomination as the Democratic candidate for president. For some, her nomination “breaks…
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Yorkville Man Convicted of Possessing Child Pornography
While the First Amendment protects the right of adults to watch and produce pornography, this right is not without limitations. For example, child pornography is not protected under the First Amendment and is always illegal. Child pornography is any visual depiction of a minor, aka a person under 18 years old, engaging in a sexual activity. In recent years the federal government has become more and more focused on prosecuting those who have allegedly produced, distributed, or viewed child pornography. One of the most recent child pornography cases in Illinois involves a Yorkville man who was recently sentenced to 12 years in prison for a child pornography conviction and for violating the Sex Offender Registration Act, reports MyInforms.com. As the man had been convicted of child pornography related crimes three times before, the Kendall County Sheriff’s Office conducted a compliance check in December 2015 to confirm that the Yorkville man was in compliance with the Sex…
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Harris pays more, gets worse safety outcomes from coercing pleas through detention of poor and innocent misdemeanor defendants
This new academic paper focused on Harris County, "The Downstream Consequences of Misdemeanor Pretrial Detention," has implications for innocence work as well as for local officials in Houston with budget-and-public-safety based motives to reduce pretrial detention. Here's the abstract:In misdemeanor cases, pretrial detention poses a particular problem because it may induce otherwise innocent defendants to plead guilty in order to exit jail, potentially creating widespread error in case adjudication. While practitioners have long recognized this possibility, empirical evidence on the downstream impacts of pretrial detention on misdemeanor defendants and their cases remains limited. This Article uses detailed data on hundreds of thousands of misdemeanor cases resolved in Harris County, Texas — the third largest county in the U.S. — to measure the effects of pretrial detention on case outcomes and future crime. We find that detained defendants are 25%…
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Will there be fewer than 20 executions in 2016?
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Quickly responding to (nonexistant?) problem, NY Gov bars paroled sex offenders from playing Pokemon Go
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CIO Dive: What happens when tech innovation moves faster than Congress?
CIO Dive: What happens when tech innovation moves faster than Congress? by Justine Brown: The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) has a provision that requires electronic communications more than 180 days old be treated as abandoned and thus obtainable with … Continue reading →
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Don’t Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Should Do Today! The Repercussions of Delaying a Bankruptcy Filing
Filing for bankruptcy can be a very difficult and stressful process for many Georgian families who are in a constant state of worry because they cannot meet their monthly bills. Because the decision to “take the bankruptcy plunge” is very serious, it is not uncommon for people to delay filing their case. Nobody likes to deal with tough financial decisions, but often it is better in the long run to face these types of problems head on. Read on to learn about the possible repercussions of delaying a bankruptcy case, and be sure to contact our office to speak to an experienced attorney. 1. You may lose more money in the long run. If you and your family are signing on to pay day loans, cashing in CDs, withdrawing from retirement accounts, taking out credit card cash advances, and other drastic measures in order to pay off your bills, you may be throwing good money after bad. For example, a successful Chapter 7 bankruptcy case will discharge (i.e. erase) your…
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One Year Ago, Cecil the Lion Died
Source: Wikipedia The Daily Mail reports that Walter Palmer, the Minnesota millionaire dentist, is thriving and Cecil the Lion….is still dead. But the first anniversary year of the killing has revived the protest by those who are still outraged at the staged killing of the park animal. Dr. Walter Palmer, one year ago, had his trophy kill gutted and readied to be shipped to his home in the U.S. when the story broke and brought a firestorm of outrage on the bewildered dentist. The millionaire dentist who was forced into hiding for a brief time has avoided prosecution both in Zimbabwe and the United States. Zimbabwe abandoned its attempts to extradite Dr. Palmer and announced that no laws had been broken. I personally am starting a fundraising project to raise money for Dr. Palmer to have an all expense paid trip to China where he can have a free ride in an open door-less car to visit Badaling Safari World in Bejing, China. Continue reading →
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D.Nev.: Prior drug arrest, nervousness and driving from CA to MN not reasonable suspicion
“The government argues that three articulable factors support a finding that Detective Schaffner had reasonable suspicion to prolong the stop. First, the government points to the fact that Garcia’s records check revealed two narcotics-related arrests in the past year. Second, … Continue reading →
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Did the Third Circuit Intend to Severely Narrow the Statement-Against-Penal-Interest Hearsay Exception, and to Encourage New Investigation in Habeas Proceedings?
Navigating through some murky jurisprudential waters, the Third Circuit may have steered a bit off course, and unnecessarily so. In a precedential opinion issued without oral argument, Staruh v. Superintendent Cambridge SpringsSCI, No. 15-1650 (3d Cir. June 30,2016), the Third Circuit seems to have ruled that a third-party’s extra-judicial exculpatory confession is admissible only when the declarant is available to testify, even though the statement-against-penal-interest hearsay exception, by its terms, applies when the declarant is not available to testify. See, e.g., Fed. R. Evid. 804(b)(3). Before discussing the specifics of the case, a nutshell discussion of relevant law may prove useful.The Supreme Court has recognized that state evidentiary rules that categorically exclude hearsay evidence—when critical to the defense and with persuasive assurances of trustworthiness—can violate due process. In Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284 (1973), a state…
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The Civil Rights Suit, "Adult Films" and Venue
This post examines an opinion a U.S. District Court Judgewho sits in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey recently issued in a civil suit: Fragola v. Plainville Police Department, 2016 WL 2943816 (2016). The judge begins his opinion by explaining that[t]his action arises from the arrest and subsequent criminal conviction in Connecticut of plaintiff, Dean Fragola. Plaintiff is a resident of Newton, New Jersey. (Compl., ¶ 1.) Plaintiff alleges that he is somehow involved in the production of adult films. According to Defendants the underlying criminal charges against Plaintiff stem from his purported attempt to help a young woman from Connecticut become a pornographic movie star (Def. Br. p.1). Without the victims permission, Plaintiff allegedly created posters using the victims photographs that were on her website and tweeted them on his account. (Compl., 7.)The victim contacted the Connecticut authorities and explained that Plaintiff hacked into her…
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E.D.Va.: Another NIT Playpen case before same judge; suppression not a proper remedy
“The exact issues raised by the instant motions to suppress were also raised by the defendant in United States v. Gerald Andrew Darby, 2:16cr36. another ease pending before the undersigned. The Court denied both Motions to Suppress in Darby and … Continue reading →
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Following "Alarming" Report, New York Bans Pokemon Go for Sex Offenders on Parole
So reports Governor Andrew Cuomo's office in this press release:Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today directed the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to restrict sex offenders under community supervision from using Pokémon GO and similar games. In an effort to safeguard New York’s children, the Governor also sent a letter to software developer Niantic, Inc. requesting their assistance in prohibiting dangerous sexual predators from playing Pokémon GO.“Protecting New York’s children is priority number one and, as technology evolves, we must ensure these advances don't become new avenues for dangerous predators to prey on new victims," Governor Cuomo said. "These actions will provide safeguards for the players of these augmented reality games and help take one more tool away from those seeking to do harm to our children." At the Governor’s direction, DOCCS has imposed a new condition of…
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When Pulled Over, It’s Now Mandatory to Take the Breathalyzer Test
Even though DUI arrests and DUI- related accidents have declined in numbers in the past decade, still one in three deaths are attributed to a DUI accident in the U.S. Drivers on the road are considered alcohol-impaired if their Blood Alcohol Content or BAC is over .08 percent, and the driver is tested by a breathalyzer test right there on the scene to determine if the driver is intoxicated and what the BAC level is. The way the test has been conducted in the past was the police officer pulled over a driver either for a traffic violation or when there was an accident and administered the breathalyzer test at the scene. But, a misconception led people to think that it was better not to give the breathalyzer test if they knew they were intoxicated and would register above .08 BAC. Recently, in Las Vegas, an amendment was passed that allows the officer to draw blood forcibly from a suspect who is refusing to take the state-administered breathalyzer test. This amendment that will…
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Adventures in Co-Parenting: Charting a Course for Postmarital Families
Clare Huntington, Postmarital Family Law: A Legal Structure for Nonmarital Families, 67 Stan. L. Rev. 167 (2015). Camille Gear Rich Last year, Obergefell v. Hodges seized center stage as many family law scholars began evaluating the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision recognizing gay Americans’ constitutional right to marry. Other scholars, however, remained more interested in exploring the inverse phenomenon: the decreasing relevance of marriage and married life for many Americans. Specifically, research shows that many poor and working class Americans no longer find marriage to be a precondition for romantic relationships or parenthood. This group of Americans has formed what Huntington calls “postmarital families.” In her wonderful article, Postmarital Family Law: A Legal Structure for Nonmarital Families, Huntington explores the legal implications of this dramatic cultural shift. Huntington begins by rendering visible the bifurcated…
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Fraud in Government Versus Private Industry
When we think of fraud in governmental agencies, we often think of the sleazy-sounding bribery and corruption. Maybe you think of the bribe paid to secure a contract, or a kickback to an official for pushing a large project toward a friend’s company. Things like illegal gratuities and extortion are also perceived as occurring in governmental agencies more often than in the private sector. While those things do happen in governmental agencies, it may surprise you to know that they’re not necessarily the most common or the most costly types of fraud occurring in the public sector. Government fraud happens the same way fraud occurs in the private sector. You might hear the phrase “waste and abuse,” and that’s probably a pretty accurate way to view the bulk of fraud committed against governmental entities. Government agencies rely on funds from the public to carry out their work, and when that money is used for illegal purposes, taxpayers feel that…
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