Quelyory A. Rigal, a/k/a Kelly, Homestead, Florida, was convicted after a jury trial before U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Sentencing is scheduled for July 18, 2013 at 10:30 a.m. Rigal was originally indicted with seven other defendants in Case No. 12-60088-CR-Williams, for fraudulently obtaining mortgages for the purchase of condominium [...]
Straw Buyer Recruiter Convicted of Mortgage Fraud
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Sixth Circuit Reduces Sentence of Detroit Arsonist, Limited by Plea Agreement
In 2010, Sam Wright and an accomplice, Calvin Jones, set fire to a commercial building on the east side of Detroit. The fire paralyzed one firefighter and injured six others who responded to the scene. Wright was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, entered a plea agreement with the... Continue Reading
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Texas Execution
Texas carried out its fourth execution of 2013, last night in Huntsville. It was the 496th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 257th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry. Texas has the nation's most active death...
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If I was not read my rights before or after I was arrested can that drop the charges?
Free legal answers from attorneys - There was a fight on my property with a lady who is aware that she is not allowed at the residence. I was defending mys
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A Message from Attorney General Holder on Yesterday’s Reentry Council Meeting
The following post appears courtesy of Attorney General Eric Holder. Yesterday, I had the privilege of presiding over the fourth meeting of the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, a government-wide body that has worked – since I convened its first meeting in 2011 – to make communities both safer and stronger by reducing recidivism and addressing [...]
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Man faces charges, accused of Colorado metal theft
Houses that are being built are often left unsecure. Many people would assume that there is nothing valuable in the homes because they aren't even finished and no one lives in them. Because of increases in the price of metals...
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5-Second Probation
We were pleased to make the Southern District of Florida Blogspot today. Check out other news articles about the Mary Estelle Curran case here.
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Ross Ramsey on waning prosecutorial power
A lot of folks have asked me why (most) prosecutors have acquiesced to a one-sided, open-file discovery bill after insisting for most of the last decade that they would only do so if the defense bar agreed to "reciprocal discovery" like they have in federal court and most other states. Grits believes the answer may fundamentally be found in an item at the Texas Tribune by Ross Ramsey titled, "Texas prosecutors no longer unassailable." His colunn opens:![]()
Image via the Texas TribuneAn elected prosecutor used to have one of the most respected jobs at any level of Texas government. District attorneys were often big personalities — the courtroom muscle of the criminal justice system, the people showing up on TV to play out the real-life version of “truth, justice and the American way.”Candidates for Texas attorney general — an office with almost no duties in criminal law — have tried to capture the crime-busting aura of prosecutors for years. It was strong stuff in a political arena. Running a political campaign against a sitting prosecutor in Texas was a job for egotistic dunces and legal-minded Quixotes. Even weak DA’s were invincible.But a strange thing is happening in the impervious ranks of high-profile Texas prosecutors. That cachet is taking a beating.One prosecutor is in jail. A former district attorney is facing charges related to sending an innocent man to jail. One county spent nearly $400,000 settling a sexual harassment charge against its DA. Another prosecutor is fighting contempt of court charges after refusing to testify in a prosecutorial misconduct inquiry.He mentioned only in passing Dallas DA Craig Watkins' bizarre decision making this year that led a Democratic judge to declare him in contempt of court. And he could have added the strange episode where DA Association executive director Rob Kepple and newly elected Harris County DA Mike Anderson, who was elected on a revanchist platform, made bizarre Us. vs. Them comments at a prosecutor training that drew fire from the conservative blogosphere and various MSM outlets. It's been quite remarkable to watch the terms of debate shift among capitol opinion leaders. It'd be interesting to see some fresh, state-level polling on public attitudes on the topic.Grits dates the beginning of Texas DAs' recent slump to Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal's ignominious, public meltdown. When Rosenthal imploded, his heir apparent lost a primary runoff and much of the old-guard staff left the agency. Meanwhile, Craig Watkins took out Dallas DA Bill Hill's own heir apparent, then launched his DNA/innocence review, similarly dissipating the old guard among senior prosecutors. From that time, prosecutors' relative political clout changed. Not only were two powerful prosecutorial political bases (Dallas and Houston) replaced with ostensible reformers, but those rookie reformers were focused on their own jurisdictions, not projecting political power at the capitol the way their predecessors had done.That left John Bradley in Williamson County as the tuff-on-crime standard bearer for Texas DAs. He was based close to Austin, had legislative experience (including at one point two decades ago as a staffer to Senate Criminal Justice Chairman John Whtimire) and for several sessions he had the Governor's ear, getting Perry to veto Jerry Madden and Whitmire's probation reforms in 2005 and throwing his weight around on the Texas Forensic Science Commission. But history, the Texas Senate and ultimately his own local voters did not deal kindly with JB.Today, who is there to replace him among elected DAs in that tuffer-than-thou vein? Susan Reed in Bexar County, to some extent, though perhaps for partisan reasons her delegation doesn't reliably carry her water. Abel Reyna from Waco is outspoken and based just 90 miles away but his office is not engaged at the capitol. Neither is the Smith County DA - they have a hard-line reputation but they're not represented at the capitol day-to-day the way the larger counties often assign a full-time prosecutor to monitor legislation in Austin. El Paso's DA qualifies as a modest reformer. Prosecutors from the Valley occasionally show up, though mostly for local issues. And as for Harris County, my own dealings with new DA Mike Anderson's statehouse lobby team have been civil and productive - a much more pleasant and reasonable experience than either under Lykos or Rosenthal.The result has been a remarkable change in tone from prosecutors' own representatives, exemplified by their new stance on discovery. There are still some outliers who'd like to kill discovery reform, I'm reliably told, but the prosecutors' association is doing its best job at cat herding to try to keep them in line. Enjoy it now, there's no telling how long this kinder, gentler face will predominate.Either way, Ramsey is right that that Texas prosecutors recently faced remarkable political and legal setbacks and no longer enjoy an air of invincibility. However, I don't think they've agreed to a one-sided discovery bill just because they're weak. Many of them already have open file policies and so don't see the harm. I think it's also because they want to position themselves again as the guys in the white hats, a perception that just a few years ago at the capitol all of them took for granted. Folks like Lehmberg, Anderson, and Bradley aren't used to being the bad guys and their peers don't like being tarnished by their actions. They're still a powerful force at the capitol, though, and it'd be a mistake to suppose these temporary setbacks will diminish Texas prosecutors' clout any time soon, even if they need to find new messengers.RELATED: Rough day for Central Texas prosecutors: Lehmberg, Anderson headed to jail
Image via the Texas TribuneAn elected prosecutor used to have one of the most respected jobs at any level of Texas government. District attorneys were often big personalities — the courtroom muscle of the criminal justice system, the people showing up on TV to play out the real-life version of “truth, justice and the American way.”Candidates for Texas attorney general — an office with almost no duties in criminal law — have tried to capture the crime-busting aura of prosecutors for years. It was strong stuff in a political arena. Running a political campaign against a sitting prosecutor in Texas was a job for egotistic dunces and legal-minded Quixotes. Even weak DA’s were invincible.But a strange thing is happening in the impervious ranks of high-profile Texas prosecutors. That cachet is taking a beating.One prosecutor is in jail. A former district attorney is facing charges related to sending an innocent man to jail. One county spent nearly $400,000 settling a sexual harassment charge against its DA. Another prosecutor is fighting contempt of court charges after refusing to testify in a prosecutorial misconduct inquiry.He mentioned only in passing Dallas DA Craig Watkins' bizarre decision making this year that led a Democratic judge to declare him in contempt of court. And he could have added the strange episode where DA Association executive director Rob Kepple and newly elected Harris County DA Mike Anderson, who was elected on a revanchist platform, made bizarre Us. vs. Them comments at a prosecutor training that drew fire from the conservative blogosphere and various MSM outlets. It's been quite remarkable to watch the terms of debate shift among capitol opinion leaders. It'd be interesting to see some fresh, state-level polling on public attitudes on the topic.Grits dates the beginning of Texas DAs' recent slump to Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal's ignominious, public meltdown. When Rosenthal imploded, his heir apparent lost a primary runoff and much of the old-guard staff left the agency. Meanwhile, Craig Watkins took out Dallas DA Bill Hill's own heir apparent, then launched his DNA/innocence review, similarly dissipating the old guard among senior prosecutors. From that time, prosecutors' relative political clout changed. Not only were two powerful prosecutorial political bases (Dallas and Houston) replaced with ostensible reformers, but those rookie reformers were focused on their own jurisdictions, not projecting political power at the capitol the way their predecessors had done.That left John Bradley in Williamson County as the tuff-on-crime standard bearer for Texas DAs. He was based close to Austin, had legislative experience (including at one point two decades ago as a staffer to Senate Criminal Justice Chairman John Whtimire) and for several sessions he had the Governor's ear, getting Perry to veto Jerry Madden and Whitmire's probation reforms in 2005 and throwing his weight around on the Texas Forensic Science Commission. But history, the Texas Senate and ultimately his own local voters did not deal kindly with JB.Today, who is there to replace him among elected DAs in that tuffer-than-thou vein? Susan Reed in Bexar County, to some extent, though perhaps for partisan reasons her delegation doesn't reliably carry her water. Abel Reyna from Waco is outspoken and based just 90 miles away but his office is not engaged at the capitol. Neither is the Smith County DA - they have a hard-line reputation but they're not represented at the capitol day-to-day the way the larger counties often assign a full-time prosecutor to monitor legislation in Austin. El Paso's DA qualifies as a modest reformer. Prosecutors from the Valley occasionally show up, though mostly for local issues. And as for Harris County, my own dealings with new DA Mike Anderson's statehouse lobby team have been civil and productive - a much more pleasant and reasonable experience than either under Lykos or Rosenthal.The result has been a remarkable change in tone from prosecutors' own representatives, exemplified by their new stance on discovery. There are still some outliers who'd like to kill discovery reform, I'm reliably told, but the prosecutors' association is doing its best job at cat herding to try to keep them in line. Enjoy it now, there's no telling how long this kinder, gentler face will predominate.Either way, Ramsey is right that that Texas prosecutors recently faced remarkable political and legal setbacks and no longer enjoy an air of invincibility. However, I don't think they've agreed to a one-sided discovery bill just because they're weak. Many of them already have open file policies and so don't see the harm. I think it's also because they want to position themselves again as the guys in the white hats, a perception that just a few years ago at the capitol all of them took for granted. Folks like Lehmberg, Anderson, and Bradley aren't used to being the bad guys and their peers don't like being tarnished by their actions. They're still a powerful force at the capitol, though, and it'd be a mistake to suppose these temporary setbacks will diminish Texas prosecutors' clout any time soon, even if they need to find new messengers.RELATED: Rough day for Central Texas prosecutors: Lehmberg, Anderson headed to jail
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Ruined My Life
I was at my business on a break sitting outside.When my sister who is not mentally stable attacked me.I was dumb founded she grabbed me around the neck and we went spiraling down the handicap ramp.She is a little woman [...]
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Operation Wax House Charges 9 More with Mortgage Fraud
A federal superseding indictment charged nine additional defendants with racketeering, investment fraud, mortgage fraud, bank bribery and money laundering. This latest round of criminal charges resulting from Operation Wax House, a mortgage fraud investigation which began in the Western District of North Carolina in 2007, brings the total number of defendants charged to date to [...]
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Can You Get Probation On Child Pornography And Pandering Charges?
Every month we see stories in the news about a government sting, or bust, where several individuals were arrested as part of a child pornography “ring”. Often we receive, understandably, frantic phone calls from the people arrested or their families. Almost every call involves how much time the person faces if convicted and the numbers [...]
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Can You Get Probation On Child Pornography And Pandering Charges?
Every month we see stories in the news about a government sting, or bust, where several individuals were arrested as part of a child pornography “ring”. Often we receive, understandably, frantic phone calls from the people arrested or their families. Almost every call involves how much time the person faces if convicted and the numbers [...]
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Maryland Governor to Sign Repeal Bill into Law on May 2
Today's Annapolis Capital Gazette reports, "O'Malley to sign death penalty repeal next week," by Alex Jackson. Maryland will become the 18th state to outlaw the death penalty next week when Gov. Martin O’Malley signs a bill to end the punishment....
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Alabama DUI Law Pushed By MADD Advocates
Alabama lawmakers have a pair of bills before them - one in the state House and another in the Senate - that anti-drunk driving advocates are pushing to have passed. ![drivefast3.jpg]()
Our Birmingham DUI defense lawyers know that the laws in this state are plenty harsh. But no one will be there to lobby on behalf of the drunk driver.
Consider that according to Alabama Code Section 32-5A-191, a person who is convicted of driving under the influence for the first time will face the following:
--Up to 1 year of imprisonment;
--A fine of up to $2,100, but not less than $600;
--A license suspension for up to three months;
--The possibility of having to install an ignition interlock device.
Additional penalties may be tacked on for first-time offenders who registered an extremely high blood alcohol level (above 0.15 percent), or caused serious injury or property damage or who had a minor under the age of 14 inside the vehicle at the time of arrest.
The two measures currently before state legislators are HB477 and SB401. Both involve the ignition interlock program, and the expansion of it.
Alabama was the last state in the country to require ignition interlock devices for certain DUI offenders. If you aren't familiar, an ignition interlock is basically a device that is affixed to an offender's personal vehicle. It is a breathalyzer test that the driver would be required to pass before the engine would start. This option is only applicable to DUI offenders arrested after September 1, 2012.
However, the program has gotten off to a rocky start. There has been very little training offered to state and local police agencies regarding enforcement. And there have also been some strong arguments made for doing away with the program altogether. So judges here in Alabama have been reticent to order defendants to install the devices.
These twin bills would expand the ignition interlock program and streamline certain processes around it. So for example, while a first-time offender still would not be required to have the interlock installed, he or she may be given the option to do so over the course of six months, or have driving privileges totally revoked for three months.
Additionally, the measures would require the courts to notify the state's public safety department of certain convictions requiring the device. There would also be a fund created so that indigent offenders could still get the device installed.
As of right now, 17 other states have these kind of provisions in place for the interlock devices. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the advocacy group gunning the hardest for their passage, says that in three of those states where these enhanced interlock programs have passed, DUI deaths are down 35 to 46 percent.
However, MADD was not able to provide any clear-cut evidence that this was specifically due to ignition interlock. In fact, DUI deaths have been on the decline for years - prior to the passage of widespread ignition interlock laws. Over the last 10 years nationwide, drunk driving deaths were down 41 percent, as of 2010 - and that trend has continued.
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Our Birmingham DUI defense lawyers know that the laws in this state are plenty harsh. But no one will be there to lobby on behalf of the drunk driver.
Consider that according to Alabama Code Section 32-5A-191, a person who is convicted of driving under the influence for the first time will face the following:
--Up to 1 year of imprisonment;
--A fine of up to $2,100, but not less than $600;
--A license suspension for up to three months;
--The possibility of having to install an ignition interlock device.
Additional penalties may be tacked on for first-time offenders who registered an extremely high blood alcohol level (above 0.15 percent), or caused serious injury or property damage or who had a minor under the age of 14 inside the vehicle at the time of arrest.
The two measures currently before state legislators are HB477 and SB401. Both involve the ignition interlock program, and the expansion of it.
Alabama was the last state in the country to require ignition interlock devices for certain DUI offenders. If you aren't familiar, an ignition interlock is basically a device that is affixed to an offender's personal vehicle. It is a breathalyzer test that the driver would be required to pass before the engine would start. This option is only applicable to DUI offenders arrested after September 1, 2012.
However, the program has gotten off to a rocky start. There has been very little training offered to state and local police agencies regarding enforcement. And there have also been some strong arguments made for doing away with the program altogether. So judges here in Alabama have been reticent to order defendants to install the devices.
These twin bills would expand the ignition interlock program and streamline certain processes around it. So for example, while a first-time offender still would not be required to have the interlock installed, he or she may be given the option to do so over the course of six months, or have driving privileges totally revoked for three months.
Additionally, the measures would require the courts to notify the state's public safety department of certain convictions requiring the device. There would also be a fund created so that indigent offenders could still get the device installed.
As of right now, 17 other states have these kind of provisions in place for the interlock devices. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the advocacy group gunning the hardest for their passage, says that in three of those states where these enhanced interlock programs have passed, DUI deaths are down 35 to 46 percent.
However, MADD was not able to provide any clear-cut evidence that this was specifically due to ignition interlock. In fact, DUI deaths have been on the decline for years - prior to the passage of widespread ignition interlock laws. Over the last 10 years nationwide, drunk driving deaths were down 41 percent, as of 2010 - and that trend has continued.
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Albany Times Union Editorial Honors David Kaczynski
Today's Albany Times Union publishes the editorial,"To Mr. Kaczynski, in awe." He's recently retired as the executive director of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The fight against violence, and the quest for justice, is stronger for his...
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Attorney Stacy Kaye Sits Down for a Q&A Session
Stacy Kaye has been with Appelman Law Firm for over five years. She served as a Law Clerk for three years before joining the team as an associate in October 2010. Stacy specializes in a variety of criminal defense areas, including DUI, drug, juvenile, theft and violent crimes. In her Q&A, Stacy talks about the [...]The post Attorney Stacy Kaye Sits Down for a Q&A Session appeared first on The Appelman Law Firm Law Blog
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Corn on Miranda, Surreptitious Questioning, and the Right to Counsel
Geoffrey S. Corn (South Texas College of Law) has posted Miranda, Surreptitious Questioning, and the Right to Counsel on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article analyzes police surreptitious questioning of a suspect following invocation of the Miranda right to...
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9 Investigates crackdown on sex offenders inside Disney World
Unfortunately this is likened to Facebook saying "No Sex Offenders Allowed." Disney owns the property and has the right to say who gest in and who doesn't. Hopefully they are checking more than sex...
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The Only Thing We Have to Fear
I did not write about the government's announcement (and why, by the way, did they announce it?) that it intended to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev without first informing him of his Miranda rights. I didn't write about how the so-called "public-safety" exception made up by the Supremes in New York v. Quarles was, at the time it was invented, intended to be narrow and limited. Nor did I write about how it happened (and somewhat oddly, I should perhaps add) that when he was given Miranda warnings he took them seriously and decided to shut up.I didn't write about turning greater Boston into a police state, ordering the populace to stay home (except for the part of the populace that operates Dunkin Donuts), conducting door-to-door suspicionless warrantless searches which at least sometimes seem to have involved forcing the homeowners out of their homes and holding them at gunpoint.I haven't written about Lindsey Graham and John McCain and Rudy Giuliani and all the whack jobs who haunt Fox news (brilliantly eviscerated by Jon Stewart here) are convinced it's time to take a red pencil to the Bill of Rights, saving only the Second Amendment and the part of the First that calls for the Free Exercise of Christianity (and maybe of Judaism in Israel) but prohibits all other religions.For that, you can read Bennett and Horowitz and Greenfield and Gideon and Kennedy and . . . . Enough.Look, the bombing at the Boston marathon and all that followed scared folks shitless. Scared them more, in many respects, than did the planes on 9/11. But they're of a piece. And when we get scared - that's when we name laws after children or lock people up at Gitmo (including the ones we agree don't need to be there, don't need to be locked up at all, but who we're still keeping imprisoned there for years, proably forever). Ahmed Ressam, the "Millennium Bomber," was part of a terrorist cell operating out of Canada. He was arrested by customs inspectors when he tried to drive a car carrying explosives from Canada to the U.S. His intention was to blow up Los Angeles International Airport as the millennium turned. He turned down a plea offer that would have had him in prison for 25 years, went to trial, and was convicted by a jury of nine counts. Ressam asked for a prison sentence of 12 1/2 years. The government asked that he be locked up for 35. The judge gave him 22. Appeal, much folderol, back for resentencing. This time the government asked for 45 years. Again the judge gave him 22. Appeal, much folderol, the 9th Circuit told the judge it wasn't nearly enough time.Back for a third sentence. Probation services says that Ressam's Guideline sentence falls anywhere between 65 years and life. (The judge's caclulation puts the Guideline range between 42 and 44 years.) The government this time asked for life. The judge, and it's been the same judge every time, gave him 37 years to be followed by 5 years of supervised release.Yawn. I mean, really, who gives a shit about this stuff, Gamso?You can, if you're inclined, read the 18 page Sentencing Order here. If you do federal criminal defense, you probably want to. (Hell, if you do a lot of it, you probably already have.) Yawn, yawn. Have you got a point? Are you ever going to get there? See, the judge (he's the Honorable John C. Coughenour, by the way, appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan) thought some preliminary remarks were in order. So he blathered a bit about his gratitude to the 9th Circuit for setting him straight by twice reversing Ressam's sentence. And he talked about the heavy burden of figuring out what the right sentence is in a case and how he's been wrong and how "mistakes have left scars."Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Please, Gamso, get on with it.OK, here it is. The judge then wrote this paragraph (emphasis mine).This case provokes our greatest fears. In the late 1990s, Mr. Ressam plotted a terrorist attack against the United States with the potential to kill and injure a large number of people. Because Mr. Ressam planned this act of violence and took steps to carry it out, many, including the federal government, believe that Mr. Ressam is a continuing threat and he should never see freedom again. But fear is not, nor has it ever been, the guide for a federal sentencing judge. It is a foul ingredient for the sentencing calculus.I want to be very clear about this. There's nothing generous in the sentence. Judge Coughenour shows no spectacular courage in imposing a sentence 2 years longer than the one the government originally asked him to impose (although considerably shorter than what the government now wanted).But if the sentence is no bonus, the warning is. For judges imposing sentence (or deciding whether to expand the public-safety exception to cover all information the cops would like to know), for legislators looking for more ways to write laws so that the protections of the Bill of Rights will only be available to those who have no need for or interest in them, and for all of us inclined to buckle with fear and say "how far" when some government worker says to strip and bend over and pull apart the cheeks.In 1933, in his first inaugural address, FDR said Of course, he forgot it when he thought it would be a good idea to act upon "fear itself" when he ordered Japanese-Americans into concentration camps.Thing is, he was right at the inaugural. He should have been paying attention.
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Freispruch nach angeblicher Vergewaltigung
Vor dem Schöffengericht wurde ein Strafverfahren bezüglich einer Vergewaltigung verhandelt. Einem 49-jährigen Mann wurde vorgeworfen, dass er eine Frau in ihrer Wohnung geschlagen und vergewaltigt haben soll. Die mutmaßlich Geschädigte konnte im Prozess nicht mehr aussagen, da sie, unabhängig von der Tat, verstorben war. Gegenüber der Polizei sagte die Frau bei ihrer damaligen Vernehmung . . . → Read More: Freispruch nach angeblicher Vergewaltigung
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More Pages to Explore .....
