Free Republic

Ashland, Ky. (AP) -- Anti-tobacco lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs has reported to a federal prison in eastern Kentucky. . . .for conspiring to bribe a judge with $50,000.

How is it possible that chronic behavioral malcontent George Miley assaulted a female police officer three weeks ago, but only ended up spending four days in jail? After all, his July 6 attack on Officer Lisa Frazer was followed by his 106th arrest since 2001. Most everyone says the system for punishing quality-of-life crimes like public drunkenness and aggressive panhandling is broken in San Francisco, but Miley seems like an extraordinary case. How can he be on the streets today? The answer is both complicated and simple: Lenient San Francisco juries, clogged courts, and judges who are more willing to...

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Monday overturned a decision to fine CBS Corp (CBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) television stations $550,000 for airing a brief breast flash by pop singer Janet Jackson during the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast.

Sorry to rain on everybody’s parade, but this isn’t a good thing. Of course, I have already explained why I believe that civil unions would be better for us than gay marriage. I have also explained why at this point I don’t want gay marriage at all. (For those of you who don’t want to click, I can sum it up: 1) no-fault divorce, 2) alimony and 3) Terri Schiavo.) Had California’s state legislature passed a law, I wouldn’t be complaining. I still wouldn’t be getting married, for the reasons I referred to above, but I’d have no objection to...

MERRITT, B.C. - The prime suspect in the murder of three young British Columbia children has been captured alive in Merritt, authorities say. "He's alive," confirmed RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre, the commander of criminal operations in B.C. He said Schoenborn was found near Merritt. Police in Canada and the U.S. had been searching for Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, 40, since April 7 - the day after his three children were found dead in their mobile home. Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, the prime suspect in theslayings of his three children in Merritt, B.C., has been found. Schoenborn had been watching the children,...

A judge on Thursday dropped nearly half the charges against "private eye to the stars" Anthony Pellicano and a co-defendant at the request of prosecutors, who were preparing to rest their case in the wiretapping and bribery trial. The 28 counts against Pellicano and ex-Los Angeles police sergeant Mark Arneson were dismissed by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer after federal prosecutors said that witnesses required to prove them could not be brought to court. Both men still face 35 counts in the case, which centers on accusations that Pellicano wiretapped telephones and bribed police and telephone company officials to run...

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. In 1774, a young James Madison, while traveling through Culpeper County in Virginia – well before he became our fourth president – passed by a jail where a number of Baptist preachers had been incarcerated for nothing more than preaching without an official government license. One of these "criminals" preached from a window of the jail to any who would listen. Madison would never forget the dedication of those brave preachers – nor the audacity of the officials who had jailed them.

Abortion opponents got their grand jury investigation. But when no indictments came down last week against Planned Parenthood of Overland Park, they cried foul.

Attorney-Client Privelege Kept Them From Speaking Up Before Man Spent 26 Years In Prison Alton Logan has spent the last 26 years in jail on a murder conviction that's now being called into question. Two local attorneys kept a secret for more than a quarter of a century. They knew about a wrongful conviction, but could not say anything. CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports they finally told their story on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, and went to court Monday. Alton Logan has spent 26 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. In 1983 he was wrongly convicted of...

ANN ARBOR, MI – Maryland Circuit Court Judge William J. Rowan, III, ruled last week that it is permissible to teach 8th and 10th grade Montgomery County public school students how to use condoms during anal and oral sex, as well as that homosexuality is inborn, even though in 2007 Maryland’s highest appellate court ruled there is no scientific basis for such a conclusion. The controversial new curriculum was adopted as a result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups. That sexual orientation is innate, namely, homosexuals are ‘born that way,’ is a theory that has been rejected by courts in...

A conservative group must abide by campaign finance laws if it wants to run ads promoting its anti-Hillary Rodham Clinton movie, a federal court ruled Tuesday. Citizens United had hoped to run the television advertisements in key election states during peak primary season. The court ruling means the group must either keep its ads off the air or attach a disclaimer and disclose its donors. Lawyers for the group had argued its 90-minute "Hillary: The Movie" was no different from documentaries seen on television news shows "60 Minutes" and "Nova." That prompted skepticism and, at one point, outright laughter from...

A judge said Wednesday that he was leaning toward allowing Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit over his being fired by CBS to proceed. "I concluded there was enough in the complaint (by Rather) to continue with discovery (pretrial research)," state Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman said at a hearing on CBS' motion to dismiss the case. The judge did not issue a final ruling on CBS' motion, but he suggested the parties try to agree on the scope of pretrial discovery -- just in case -- and told them to return to court Jan. 23 for a conference. Rather, whose...

13-year-old initiated sex, judge says Article from: Herald Sun December 17, 2007 01:51pm A JUDGE has labelled a man's rape of a 13-year-old boy "adolescent experimentation" and said the teen and the perpetrator were "both victims". Judge Michael Kelly's comments come a month after a prosecutor accused him of making inappropriate and disrespectful statements about the sexual assault victim during a plea hearing. The Melbourne County Court was told that in March 2001 a 24-year-old man began a relationship with a 13-year-old boy.

Candidates lining up to replace longtime Travis County district attorney. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who has led that office since 1977, told his staff today that he will not seek re-election. He was expected to issue a statement later. Earle, 65, will serve the one year remaining on his term, but his retirement will end an era. "Is the district attorney's job an elective office?" Ken Oden, a former county attorney, once quipped about his friend's long tenure. Earle, a Democrat, might not be done with politics. By retiring, he would be available for a gubernatorial bid in...

With his buddy Ralph Tyler firmly planted as the Maryland Insurance Commissioner, Martin O’Malley is using the office to put in definitions of domestic partners through regulations rather than legislation. So, two people that share an apartment only have to get a joint bank account and insurance companies are required to recognize them as domestic partners. A public hearing is scheduled for next week, Thursday, December 13th.

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The Supreme Court agreed Friday to consider reinstating part of the conviction of the man who planned to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, case the government says will greatly affect terrorism prosecutions. Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2005 after being convicted on nine counts for plotting to bomb the airport around Jan. 1, 2000. Customs agents in Port Angeles caught him with explosives in the trunk of his rental car when he drove off a ferry from British Columbia in December 1999. The ensuing scare prompted the cancellation of...

A judge rules that the retailer needs to stand trial for having a Web site that is insufficiently accessible. When a federal court judge issued rulings Oct. 2 that the $60 billion retailer Target needed to stand trial on charges that its Web site is not sufficiently accessible to visually-impaired shoppers, it sent a strong signal to much of the e-commerce space.

For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928. Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the country over the past...

Investigative reporter Wendy Saltzman discovered more than 100 law enforcement officers have been arrested in Georgia for driving under the influence. Her investigation found some of them asked for favors, some wrecked department cars, and some were given special treatment. "I think that is outrageous frankly," said police psychologist Dr. Anthony Stone. "I can't imagine their being fit for duty, because almost by definition they have a drinking problem," Stone said. Habersham County Sheriff’s Captain Freddie Chapman has been arrested 4 times on alcohol related charges spanning back to an underage alcohol violation in 1988. His offenses also include three...

Frustrated in efforts to legalize same-sex marriage through legislation or litigation, proponents will launch a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign this week to "open hearts and minds" in Sacramento and other major cities. The 60-second ads will run in the capital, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs as part of a monthslong campaign to prod families to openly discuss same-sex marriage. "The long-term goal is to have the majority of Californians support the freedom to marry -- to change the climate here," said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, which is coordinating the campaign. Benjamin Lopez, spokesman for...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Polk County judge has struck down Iowa's law preserving marriage for only a man and a woman. He ordered the county recorder's office to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Six gay and lesbian couples went to court for the right to legally marry in Iowa. Lamda Legal filed a lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of the couples in Iowa, saying they deserve equal protection under the law. Des Moines laywer Dennis Johnson represented six gay couples who filed the lawsuit after they were denied marriage licenses, and he says Hanson's ruling is a moral...

A Californian who set up a vote-swapping Web site for supporters of Ralph Nader and Al Gore in 2000, before the state shut it down with a threat of prosecution, said Tuesday he may try again next year now that a federal appeals court has ruled that online vote-trading agreements are constitutionally protected. It all depends, Jim Cody said, on a candidacy by Nader or some other third-party hopeful that might siphon away enough votes from the Democratic nominee to tip the scales to a Republican in one or more states. His short-lived Vote Swap2000.com was meant to counteract that...

Al Gore III pleaded guilty Monday to possessing marijuana and other drugs, but a judge told the former Veep's son he can withdraw that plea and have the charges dropped if he successfully completes a drug diversion program. What a bargain! Cops say the 24-year-old was going 100+ MPH in his Prius on an Orange County freeway when they pulled him over. Multiple drugs were found in his car.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The prosecutor in the case of a Liberian native charged with repeatedly raping and molesting a 7-year-old girl said Monday that he is filing an appeal of a controversial judge's ruling that dismissed all charges because an interpreter who spoke the suspect's rare West African dialect could not be found.Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy called the ruling last Tuesday by Judge Katherine Savage "improper," adding that his office has "requested that an appeal be taken to reverse the court's order." Savage ruled on July 17 that Mahamu Kanneh, a Liberian who received asylum in the U.S....

New Orleans, LA (LifeNews.com) -- Two nurses accused of euthanizing patients in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have seen the charges against them dropped by the district attorney in the case. Nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry were arrested along with physician Anna Pou on charges that they killed four patients. All three worked at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center at the time of the hurricane. The three were accused of killing as many as nine patients so they could relinquish their responsibility for patients and flee the hospital as conditions there deteriorated. John DiGiulio, Landry's attorney, said he was...

Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison, who has been under fire from pro-life groups for dragging his feet on a probe into potentially illegal abortions at Planned Parenthood dropped all of the charges. He dropped some of the charges against Wichita late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller but kept others. The pro-life group Kansans for Life is disappointed and worries that political games may have been played. "Planned Parenthood in Overland Park was the site of political phone banking and letter stuffing (that was surely designed to help Paul Morrison defeat Phill Kline) on multiple dates prior to...

AUSTIN, Texas - The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday refused to reinstate a dropped conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

ATLANTA — A Georgia judge on Monday voided a 10-year sentence given to a man who was convicted while a teenager of having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl. Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson voided Genarlow Wilson's sentence and dropped it to misdemeanor aggravated child molestation with a 12-month sentence, plus credit for time served. Under the new ruling, he will not be required to register as a sex offender

Wednesday, May 23, 2007 The horrors facing a first offender locked up with hardened criminals in the nation's high-security federal prisons highlighted testimony Tuesday in the sentencing hearing of Stanislas Meyerhoff, the first of 10 defendants to be sentenced in the Operation Backfire prosecution of radical underground environmental activists. The hearing is expected to conclude today in Eugene before U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, who will decide Meyerhoff's prison term and rule whether his crimes were acts of terrorism, a ruling that could bring a stiffer sentence. Through the day, prosecution and defense lawyers dueled over whether Meyerhoff was an...

May 09, 2007 Greensprings resident Jonathan Paul and federal prosecutors are squaring off in court filings over whether Paul's role in burning a Redmond meat-packing plant in 1997 on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front was arson or terrorism. At the heart of the debate is whether the burning of the Cavel West plant and the overall ALF/Earth Liberation Front conspiracy were meant to be retaliation against, or coercion of, the government or the public. In new court filings, federal prosecutors claim that the arson was to intimidate the Bureau of Land Management into disbanding its program of rounding up...

HARTFORD, Conn. - Religion has no place in post offices run by churches and other private contractors, a federal judge has ruled, citing the constitutional separation of church and state. U.S. District Judge Dominic J. Squatrito, in a case involving a church-run post office in Manchester, ordered the Postal Service to notify the nearly 5,200 facilities run by contractors that they cannot promote religion through pamphlets, displays or any other materials. He also told the agency to monitor those offices, which are distinguishable from government-run facilities and employ workers who are not Postal Service employees, to make sure they comply...

They came bearing chocolate chip cookies, as grandmothers often do. The nice man at the Army recruiting office wasn't interested. After listening to their anti-war spiel and resisting their pleas for him to quit his job, the recruiter asked the ladies to leave. He was polite, but he had work to do. "I said, 'That's where the rub comes, because we have work to do, too,' " said Paki Wieland, a 63-year-old with two grandsons. "Our work is to stop your work." That's when the police came to haul away Wieland and four other grandmothers on trespassing charges. Such things...

The lawyers defending I. Lewis Libby Jr. against perjury charges rested their case today, but not before suffering a series of defeats in legal rulings by the presiding judge. The judge, Reggie B. Walton, expressed in the strongest terms yet that he had been misled by the defense team about whether Mr. Libby would take the stand in his own defense ....Judge Walton said he “believed all along in the process that Mr. Libby was going to testify” and that his lawyers were now “playing games with the process.” The juror said that they were wearing the T-shirts (red with...

TOPEKA | Former Attorney General Phill Kline’s attempt to prosecute the state’s most visible abortion provider is now officially over. When Kline left office Jan. 8, the Kansas Supreme Court had been asked to reinstate 30 misdemeanor charges Kline had filed against George Tiller, who operates a Wichita clinic. Tiller is among a few doctors in the nation who perform late-term abortions, and Kline alleged he violated restrictions on those procedures. Current Attorney General Paul Morrison asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the request, and the court did so Tuesday. Chief Justice Kay McFarland wrote “granted” on the one-page document...

EL PASO, Texas -- One man and two women on the jury that convicted two former El Paso Border Patrol agents of shooting a drug smuggler in the buttocks last year said they were misled into agreeing with a guilty verdict, according to a motion filed Tuesday. Mary Stillinger, the lawyer for one of the agents, Ignacio Ramos, thought the jurors' statements should be grounds for setting the verdict aside and having a new trial for Ramos and fellow agent Jose Alonso Compean.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could wake up ... and find out that a crazy judge didn't pull the rug out from under you? The Beach Boys just learned a hard lesson about the American justice system. TMZ has learned that on December 11, Danny Morin, the lawyer from Brother Records Inc. (The Beach Boys' company), showed up 13 minutes late for a court hearing in Los Angeles Federal Court. Judge Manuel Real, legendary for his explosive tirades, sent some seriously bad vibrations through the courtoom by dismissing The Beach Boys' case. Brother Records Inc. filed the lawsuit last...

TRENTON, Nov. 15 — A lesbian couple in South Jersey won court approval this week to have both of their names listed as parents on the birth certificate of their newborn, and the attorney general’s office said it will no longer oppose such applications. The decision, in Family Court in Burlington County, stems from an Oct. 25 ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court holding that same-sex couples are entitled to the same legal rights and protections as heterosexual couples. The court gave the Legislature 180 days either to bring gay couples within the state’s marriage laws or establish a...

(WJZ/AP) Baltimore, MD -- Several top Maryland Democrats are urging Governor Robert Ehrlich to push for an extension of the deadline for voters to postmark absentee ballots. In a letter to Ehrlich dated Sunday, the group asked the governor to instruct his appointees on the Maryland Board of Elections to allow ballots postmarked on election day to be counted. The current deadline is today. The letter cites shortages in absentee ballots because of the high number of requests this year. The letter comes on the heels of a similar request by a coalition of attorneys' groups and civil rights organizations....

A federal appeals court blocked an Arizona state law requiring voters to present identification at polling stations and proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an emergency motion by opponents of the law for an injunction to prevent the law's voter identification requirements from taking effect for the November 7 elections. Opponents of the Arizona law said it discriminated against minorities and the poor, who might not have funds to obtain the necessary proof of identification. “The law sets a burdensome requirement,” Victor Meiser, attorney for the plaintiffs. “To get a driver’s...

October 7, 2006 New York -- Six officials of the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club stole $1.2 million from the group, money meant for needy kids and seniors, a city probe has found. Investigations Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn calls it "disgusting" - the worst case of wrongdoing by a non-profit contractor she's seen since taking office. Thank goodness the thieves will be going to jail for a very long time - and paying back every cent, and then some. Well, actually, that's not quite true. In fact, nobody is going to jail. Not even for a single day. And...

Over the past decade and a half, U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson has become the one of the most important figures in the state in setting prison policy, or at least trying to change it. Henderson's rulings have placed the judge firmly in control over issues ranging from use of force at Pelican Bay State Prison to internal discipline to improving medical care. They've also put him in position to direct billions in state spending into the correctional system -- with no legislative oversight. The 72-year-old judge's career has just been chronicled in Abby Ginzberg's documentary, "Soul of Justice:...

Let's face it, we've been snookered. They promised gender liberation, now we're becoming dependents of the Nanny State. They averred no fancy for special treatment, now we have affirmative action. They said they only wanted to give women a voice, now we've got speech codes. They claimed to be for gender equality, now boys are struggling just to keep up in school. Why has it taken so long for us to catch on? One of the tacit rules of the New Gender Order is that the opinions of men don't count. "If white men were not complaining, it would be...

(AP) — As they await a New Jersey Supreme Court decision on gay marriage in the Garden State, social conservatives say they are prepared to take the fight to the ballot box if they lose in the legal arena. "If we get to an imminent threat, if we get to the point where marriage is going to be decided by the court, shouldn't we get to weigh in an issue of such magnitude?" said Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Policy Council. Like advocates for gay marriage, New Jersey's conservative lobbyists and lawmakers are gearing up for a...

A federal district judge in Detroit has ruled that the Bush administration's NSA surveillance of phone conversations is unconstitutional.

Kenton athletes caused wreck that seriously injured 2 others; judge delays 60-day sentences KENTON, Ohio — Two teenagers who pulled a stunt last winter that left a man physically disabled and his friend brain-damaged will each spend 60 days in juvenile detention, but not before they finish the upcoming high-school football season. Judge Gary F. McKinley told a standing-room-only crowd in his courtroom yesterday that he knows his decision to allow standout Kenton High School athletes Dailyn Campbell, 16, and Jesse Howard, 17, to play sports before serving their sentences will be unpopular. Five deputies were on hand during the...

OLYMPIA -- A state panel has disciplined three judges, including a Tacoma jurist who ordered courtroom cheers for the Super Bowl-bound Seattle Seahawks before issuing a manslaughter sentence. The state Commission on Judicial Conduct gave each judge an admonishment, the panel's lowest-ranking punishment, in rulings released Friday. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Beverly Grant's discipline stems from a Feb. 3 hearing in which she sentenced Steve Keo Teang to 13 1/2 years for manslaughter in the 2005 shooting death of Tino Patricelli, 28. Before the proceedings, Grant asked about 100 people in court to say "Go Seahawks" before taking their...

MINEOLA, N.Y. -- A district attorney elected last fall on a promise to limit plea bargains is being sued by a defense attorney who claims the prosecutor's new policies on DWI cases are unconstitutional. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said she is not backing away from the changes, which include the creation of a separate courtroom for DWI cases. She also wants permanent criminal records for first-time offenders convicted of having a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 percent or more. The legal limit in the state is 0.08 percent. Rice has also stiffened her office's approach to plea deals, insisting...

BOSTON (Reuters) - The lesbian couple whose landmark lawsuit helped Massachusetts become the only state in America where same-sex couples can marry legally have split up, a spokeswoman said on Friday.Julie and Hillary Goodridge and six other gay and lesbian couples sued Massachusetts for the right to marry and won when the state's highest court ruled narrowly for them in 2003.Their suit helped spark a nationwide debate on gay marriage.The women "are amicably living apart," Mary Breslauer, a spokeswoman for the couple said. "As always their number one priority is raising their daughter, and like the other plaintiff couples in...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is canceling his international travel plans in the near future, saying he doesn't want to be "framed" by U.S. Customs officials after last week's incident when he was detained for more than three hours for possession of Viagra prescribed in his doctor's name. "It takes one time, and I've got red flags up, and I'm not going to put myself in the position of being framed," Limbaugh said today on his national radio broadcast. "With all this partisanship that's out there, I'm just not going to make it easy for people...

AUSTIN - A federal judge hearing a ballot dispute Monday involving former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said he thinks that DeLay withdrew from the November election, indicating potential trouble for Republicans who want to name a replacement candidate. "He is not going to participate in the election and he withdrew," said U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, who did not issue an official ruling after a daylong trial regarding DeLay's status as the GOP nominee for the 22nd Congressional District. Jim Bopp, a lawyer for the Republican Party of Texas, disagreed, telling Sparks "there's been no withdrawal." Bopp said that instead,...