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Dems worry Bush could pardon Rove, Miers By Susan Crabtree Posted: 10/03/08 12:55 PM [ET] Democrats are worried that President Bush may pardon Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and other key administration officials alleged to have played a role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs a Judiciary Committee subcommittee, expressed concern Friday that Bush pardons on the final day of his tenure in the Oval Office could cut off any chance of former White House officials being forced to testify before Congress about their role in the U.S. attorneys' removal in 2006. The Department...

Pasadena officers talked to girlfriend after shootings A woman who knew one of the burglars gunned down by Pasadena homeowner Joe Horn told police she had warned her friend that his habit of breaking into homes would cost him his life, according to recently released police records. As part of a 31-page police report, Diamond Morgan, 24, of Houston, told Pasadena police investigators that she knew Diego Ortiz was a criminal. "Morgan stated that she told Ortiz three days ago that he was going to end up dead for the things that he was doing," police detective M.E. Bruegger wrote...

Boulder District Attorney Mary T. Lacy issues the following announcement with regard to the investigation of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. On December 25-26, 1996, JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in the home where she lived with her mother, father and brother. Despite a long and intensive investigation, the death of JonBenet remains unsolved. The murder has received unprecedented publicity and has been shrouded in controversy. That publicity has led to many theories over the years in which suspicion has focused on one family member or another. However, there has been at least one persistent stumbling block to the possibility of...

Steven Hatfill finally has his life back. Thanks to FBI incompetence, he also has $5.8 million. ... It's worse because it is a virtual confession that the anthrax case is cold. Throughout one of the largest investigations in law-enforcement history, agents were fixated on a "lone wolf" theory that Director Robert Mueller's FBI, for all intents and purposes, now admits was wrong. Helped along by a sympathetic press corps, the obsession with a domestic perpetrator has ended up in a dead end. *** So the FBI needed to cast a wider net all along – which still remains urgent. In...

(Washington, D.C.) – The following is a statement from Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) in reaction to today’s announcement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that it had agreed to pay former Army biowarfare expert Dr. Steven Hatfill $5.8 million in a settlement related to the FBI’s previously naming Hatfill a “person of interest” in the investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks on the United States. The attacks originated from a postal box in Holt’s central New Jersey congressional district, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of many of his constituents: “As today’s settlement announcement confirms, this case was botched from...

The Justice Department on Friday agreed to pay more than $5.8 million to Steven Hatfill, the former government scientist once branded by the Justice Department a person of interest in the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001. The legal settlement to Hatfill, in cash and an annual payments, signals the end of a civil lawsuit Hatfill brought against the Justice Department and FBI, accusing them of violating his privacy rights by improperly leaking sensitive information about the anthrax investigation to reporters. "I think it's a gratifying end to a very sad chapter in [Hatfill's] life and that of the FBI and...

New York State Police officials are notifying district attorneys across the state that evidence in criminal cases may have been compromised by a forensic scientist who committed suicide last month after auditors discovered that he had not followed proper procedures in some cases, officials said Tuesday. The scientist, Garry Veeder, worked at the State Police crime lab for more than 30 years analyzing so-called trace evidence, such as fibers, physical material and impressions left at crime scenes. The agency is reviewing his work going back at least a decade and cannot yet say how many cases could have been compromised....

ELDORADO, TEXAS -- As officials haggled Friday over how to return more than 400 children to their parents, it was becoming increasingly clear that Texas' audacious attempt to rein in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had backfired -- and become a lesson in the difficulty of cracking down on the 10,000-member polygamist sect. .... The town also was abuzz over an anticipated mass voter registration by the FLDS. Hours after the court first ruled against the state, two members of the sect walked into the county clerk's office and requested 300 voter registration forms, a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Karl Rove, who had been one of President George W. Bush's top aides, was subpoenaed on Thursday to testify before a congressional panel investigating the administration's firing of nine federal prosecutors. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers issued the subpoena after months of failed efforts to get Rove to voluntarily testify under oath. The Judiciary Committee, like its Senate counterpart, has been investigating for more than a year the administration's dismissal of nine of the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys in 2006. Despite White House claims to the contrary, critics charge the firings were politically motivated,...

"What is the attitude of the DCFS when confronted with over 3,000 mistakes they made? Spokesman Kendall Marlowe 'acknowledged that mistakes are made, but he said the vast majority of people…were placed there properly… he declined further comment.'"The DCFS chief administrative law judge Meryl Paniak said, 'A lot of what happens at these hearings is it becomes a legal process, not… whether it happened or not, but whether enough evidence is presented.'"Not a hint of apology, not a whiff of promise to a better job. In one word, arrogant."Ned Holstein of Fathers & Families has an interesting post on a...

Durham, N.C. — Attorneys for three former Duke University lacrosse players filed a motion this week asking a judge to lift a stay that keeps them from suing former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. Nifong filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January, listing a debt of $180.3 million and David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann – as well as three other players who filed suit – as unsecured creditors, each owed $30 million. Attorneys for Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann, however, say in the April 8 filing that bankruptcy was a tactic he used to avoid a federal civil rights...

Camp Pendleton, California – A vindicated Marine lance corporal accused of war crimes at Haditha, Iraq has been granted testimonial immunity, Defend Our Marines has learned. Former Lance Corporal Justin Sharratt will testify on behalf of two enlisted Marine infantrymen waiting general court-martial in the infamous case. It is expected by both defense teams and courtroom observers that Justin Sharratt will provide testimony beneficial to Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum and Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the two Marine enlisted men still facing trial for unlawfully killing Iraqi civilians. Tatum was Sharratt’s squad mate during two vicious combat tours in Iraq in...

BRUTAL, unprovoked and pointless murders have always generated public response. Revulsion at the crime draws on the well of primitive responses that include fear, anger and fascination. The person accused can expect little respite from outrage from the moment he or she is identified as a suspect. The worse the crime the less reality there is in the public mind to the legalistic concept of presumption of innocence. For most of the 20th century, newspapers understood sales could be built on extensive reporting of court cases. So most of the 20th century also saw a steady extension of the restrictions...

Roger Clemens, future Hall of Famer, welcome to family court. No, Roger isn't getting divorced--in fact, former teammate Jose Canseco wrote that Clemens was very devoted and faithful to his wife Debbie during his baseball career. What I mean is this--Clemens has been accused in the Mitchell Report of using steroids. Clemens hotly denies this but throws up his hands in exasperation, repeatedly asking, "How do you prove a negative?" Well, how do you? This is exactly the position that so many fathers are in when faced with false accusations of domestic violence or child sexual abuse in family court....

DURHAM -- Former Durham district attorney Mike Nifong is off the hook for the time being from any civil lawsuits. The judge overseeing the Duke Lacrosse lawsuit filed by three exonerated players has put their suit on hold.

Former District Attorney Mike Nifong filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday as city leaders, police and other officials began answering one of the federal civil-rights lawsuits triggered by the Duke lacrosse case. Meanwhile, the first replies from defendants in the Evans/Finnerty/Seligmann lawsuit came Tuesday from Nifong's former investigator, Linwood Wilson, and DNA Securities Inc., the Burlington lab that tested samples gathered from the players and stripper who falsely accused them. Late Tuesday, dismissal motions were also filed on behalf of City Manager Patrick Baker, former Police Chief Steve Chalmers, Deputy Police Chief Ron Hodge, Maj. Beverly Council, Maj. Lee Russ, Capt....

After a two-year investigation into the killings of up to 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq, the Marine Corps has decided that none of the Marines involved in the incident will be charged with murder. Instead, two enlisted Marines and two Marine officers will face trial in coming months for the killings and for failing to investigate them. The most serious charges have been leveled against Marine Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, who is scheduled to be arraigned on charges of voluntary manslaughter in California next week, the last step before the case officially moves to trial. Initially called a massacre...

WASHINGTON - Former Sen. Conrad Burns is no longer part of a federal investigation of jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Burns, R-Mont., narrowly lost re-election to a fourth term in 2006 after Democrats made his relationship with Abramoff a central issue. Abramoff is the key figure in a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and officials in the Bush administration. Burns said in a statement that he "never doubted that the baseless and politically motivated charges leveled against me would be found to be without merit." "My family...

WINDER, GA - A Winder soldier accused of killing a detainee in Iraq will face third-degree murder charges, despite a military investigator's recommendation that those charges be dropped. The Army might be using Spc. Christopher Shore, 25, of Winder and other soldiers as scapegoats to satisfy world opinion about the U.S. presence in Iraq, Sen. John Douglas, R-Social Circle, said. "I am concerned because there is a number of these high profile cases coming out of Iraq and it appears there is a good degree of trying to sacrifice some of our guys in order to satisfy world opinion," Douglas...

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...

Barry Bonds is being shafted by the legal system. His case is, sadly, part of a pattern of judicial abuse, the stretching of the law like rubber to allow prosecutors to go after unpopular figures in business, politics and, now, sports. The indictment recently returned against him could have been rendered years ago. Why now? Because this season Bonds, an ill-tempered, arrogant, disliked athlete, broke the record for lifetime home runs. Had he not set a new record or had he been a friendly figure beloved by the fans, prosecutors would never have touched him...

Since its inception in 1870, the U.S. Department of Justice has had among its chief duties "to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior" and "to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans." Within that context, it is very difficult to accept the Justice Department's Dec. 3 decision not to investigate modern America's highest-profile case of prosecutorial misconduct, also known as former Durham district attorney Mike Nifong's handling of the lacrosse case. The justification for such an inquiry was undeniable: As Jim Cooney, the leader of Reade Seligmann's defense team, explained in an October 2007...

KEVIN FOX SUIT | Dad says harsh questioning made him confess to killing Riley amid harsh questioning Kevin Fox was ready to crack. He was hungry. He had failed a polygraph. He was led to believe his wife had abandoned him, his son had implicated him and his father told Will County investigators to "do what you want with him." » Click to enlarge image Kevin Fox enters the Federal Building on Tuesday to testify in his lawsuit against Will County authorities. Fox was charged with killing his 3-year-old daughter Riley, but charges were later dropped. (Brian Jackson/Sun-Times) RELATED STORIES•...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP)-A suburban Atlanta prosecutor has dropped a disorderly conduct charge against an anti-abortion activist who was arrested for driving a truck emblazoned with images of aborted fetuses.... Police had arrested Robert Dean Roethlisberger Jr. 44, of Missouri near the Mall of Georgia the day after Thanksgiving when he refused to remove images on a "Truth Truck," owned by Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group. Police, who said the images were "obscene and vulgar", also impounded the truck and removed the banners. In an e-mail Monday to the Gwinnett Daily Post, Szabo (County Solicitor) said, "To ensure no abridgement of...

A veteran political activist is facing 10 years in prison and a hefty fine for attempting to petition government for redress of grievances. The latest news from Pakistan? No, this is happening in Oklahoma. Last month Paul Jacob, the former head of U.S. Term Limits and current head of Citizens in Charge, was led out of an Oklahoma City courtroom in handcuffs after pleading not guilty to charges that he conspired to defraud the state. Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who's overseeing this bizarre prosecution, has accused Mr. Jacob and two fellow petition organizers--Rick Carpenter of Oklahomans in Action and...

ROCKSPRINGS — When he left home late last year for a jail cell, Gilmer Hernandez was a little known rural Texas deputy charged with shooting into a carload of undocumented immigrants during a late night stop. By the time he returned Monday, after 10 months behind bars for violating the civil rights of a woman injured in the shooting, Hernandez had become a national poster boy for conservatives in the bitter ongoing national debate over immigration. To many, it was proof that undocumented immigrants have more rights than U.S. lawmen. Columnists such as Ann Coulter and Phyllis Schlafly cited his...

No, I'm NOT being metaphorical nor am I kidding. If I wasn't having so much fun laughing at Ronnie Earle, I might even wish that it weren't true. Evidently Travis County DA Ronnie Earle - who is once again back in the running for most politically-driven DA in the nation now that Mike Nifong has been disbarred - is involved in this New Age, "re-discover your masculinity" cult called the ManKind Project. That's according to the liberal Houston Press. And boy does this outfit sound scary. Forty men at a time strip down and do tribal dances and beat cooked...

CAMP PENDLETON – Charges against the commander of a Marine unit accused of killing 24 Iraqi men, women and children in Haditha nearly two years ago have been dismissed. Capt. Lucas M. McConnell was charged late last year with two counts of failing to properly investigate and report a Nov. 19, 2005, incident that also left one Marine dead.....[snip] ....Only three of the original defendants – Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani and Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum – face possible court-martial anytime soon. A fourth, Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, has reportedly rejected a government plea...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- A murder charge against a Marine sergeant accused of killing a captured man in Iraq in 2004 has been dropped. The Marine Corps announced this morning that an unpremeditated murder charge filed last month against Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson has been dropped but could be refiled. Lt. Gen. James Mattis, head of Marine Corps Forces in the Middle East, ordered the dismissal pending his review of a probe into the alleged killing of four detainees during a battle in Fallujah on Nov. 9, 2004, according to a statement issued this morning at Camp Pendleton. "Mattis dismissed the...

DURHAM - Mike Nifong, the disbarred former district attorney, walked into the Durham County jail this morning, holding the hand of his lawyer and with his wife by his side...First he will be processed and given an orange jumpsuit and soft sandals to wear behind bars, lawyers say.

A video taped from a Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle – purported to show the action that took place in Haditha when 24 Iraqi civilians and insurgents were killed – was heavily edited by government investigators, a NewsMax investigation reveals. The reason, according to an inside source: to avoid showing anything that exonerates the Marines who were accused of murdering the victims. Four Marines originally faced murder charges stemming from the Haditha incident. Charges against three of them have since been dropped, but Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich is still facing a court martial. NewsMax can reveal that the video –...

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - From the day he took over the Duke lacrosse rape case, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong charged forward with a strident determination that the guilty would end up in jail. Ultimately, the since-disgraced former prosecutor only succeeded at putting himself behind bars. Nifong was sentenced Friday to a single day in jail, having been held in criminal contempt of court for lying to a judge during his pursuit of rape charges against the three falsely accused lacrosse players. Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III could have sentenced Nifong, who had already been stripped of...

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Former Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who pushed a faulty case against three Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape, took the stand Friday in his criminal contempt hearing. ***

Judge dismisses sexual harassment charges against 2 Ore. teens 08/20/2007 By WILLIAM McCALL / Associated Press Two 13-year-old boys accused of slapping girls' bottoms and poking or cupping girls' breasts at school apologized on Monday as a judge dismissed charges against the two, ending a six-month case that drew national attention. The charges triggered a debate over whether such behavior in school should be considered criminal. Four girls listed as victims by the prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the charges against Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison. Yamhill County Judge John Collins did so on Monday, saying it was...

Marine Adviser Recuses Himself From Case By Associated Press 10:32 PM EDT, August 14, 2007 : CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - A top legal adviser at Camp Pendleton who was accused of making "inappropriate and imprudent" comments recused himself from the case against a Marine charged with murdering Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Lt. Col. Bill Riggs is a senior legal adviser to the general overseeing the prosecution of five Marines charged in the slayings. Riggs recused himself from the case against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, a military spokesman said Tuesday. His action came after he contacted Lt. Col. Paul Ware, the...

AUGUST 15--In a pathetic end to the Mike Nifong saga, the disgraced North Carolina prosecutor who handled the Duke rape investigation has turned in his law license, noting that he never framed or displayed the document because it had been damaged "by a puppy in her chewing stage." Additionally, in an August 7 letter to the North Carolina State Bar, Nifong noted that the law license also contained a misspelling of his middle name (which is Byron). A copy of Nifong's "the dog ate my law license" letter can be found below. Nifong was stripped of his license as a...

WASHINGTON - Five journalists must identify the government officials who leaked them details about a scientist under scrutiny in the 2001 anthrax attacks, a federal judge said Monday. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered the reporters to cooperate with Steven J. Hatfill, who accused the Justice Department and FBI of violating the federal Privacy Act by giving the media information about the FBI's investigation of him. The reporters named in the opinion are Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman of Newsweek, Allan Lengel of The Washington Post, Toni Locy, formerly of USA Today, and James Stewart, formerly of CBS News....

From A Haditha Marine Family- It’s Finally Over At 7:00 PST, 9 August 2007 Justin and his attorney met with a Marine Corps representative in an office at Camp Pendleton, CA. At this time, my son LCpl Justin Sharratt, was handed an official Marine Corps Disposition of Charges document declaring the charges stemming from the 19 November 2005 Haditha engagement have been officially dismissed. The last line of the two page Disposition Of Charges document ended with these words from the General, “And as you have always remained cloaked in the presumption of innocence, with this dismissal of charges, you...

House Republicans and Democrats rebuked U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton today for not appearing at a House subcommittee hearing into his office's prosecution of former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. .. The absence of Sutton and Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner – and an overall lack of cooperation from the Justice Department – will trigger additional oversight hearings demanding answers in the controversial case, said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., chairman of the subcommittee on Internal Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Delahunt pointed out the Justice Department decided Sutton...

PHOENIX — Federal investigators on Saturday began gathering debris from two news helicopters that collided while covering a police chase on live television and crashed, killing all four people aboard. The investigators plan to lay out the wreckage elsewhere to try to determine the point where the two aircraft collided Friday, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Howard Plagens said. "We're just mapping out the locations ... how things are scattered, that's our main focus," he said. Investigators said they'll need at least another day to finish going through the debris, which was sprayed across the ground and landed atop nearby...

Two Border Patrol agents whose prosecution and sentences to lengthy prison terms triggered a political storm this year may have been charged with a "non-existent crime," according to a legal brief submitted to a federal appeals court in May, and obtained by Cybercast News Service.

DURHAM, N.C. — Disgraced former prosecutor Mike Nifong acknowledged Thursday there is "no credible evidence" that three Duke lacrosse players committed any of the crimes he accused them of more than a year ago, offering for the first time a complete and unqualified apology. "We all need to heal," Nifong said. "It is my hope we can start this process today." Nifong's apology came as a judge began considering whether to hold the former Durham County district attorney in criminal contempt of court for his handling of the case. Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III has already concluded there...

WASHINGTON - A group of Senate Democrats called Wednesday for a special counsel to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales perjured himself regarding the firings of U.S. attorneys and administration dissent over President Bush's domestic surveillance program. "We ask that you immediately appoint an independent special counsel from outside the Department of Justice to determine whether Attorney General Gonzales may have misled Congress or perjured himself in testimony before Congress," four Democratic senators wrote in a letter Wednesday, according to a draft obtained by The Associated Press. "It has become apparent that the Attorney General has provided at a minimum...

Two McMinnville middle-schoolers facing sex abuse charges for spanking girls in the hallway probably will not do jail time or be required to register as sex offenders, the Yamhill County district attorney said Monday as the case against the boys grew into a media sensation. The comments from Bradley Berry outraged the parents of the two 13-year-olds, Ryan Cornelison and Cory Mashburn, who with their lawyers were deluged with calls from ABC, CNN, Fox, Court TV and radio stations across the country a day after a story about the prosecution appeared in The Sunday Oregonian. Until now, Berry has declined...

If you can stand a grown woman talking like a Vally girl, she will be interviewing Johnny Sutton and Ed the former border agent on her show. Registeration required.

<p>Judge dismisses Valerie Plame's lawsuit accusing members of the Bush administration of leaking her identity... Developing..</p>

Ethics proposals sound good, but history not on his side Even in colonial days, chicanery and corruption were endemic among American politicians. It's become part of the American electoral tradition. Can it ever be fixed? Barack Obama has been a champion of improving government ethics at both the state and federal level, but he faces a long history of improbity among our elected officials. Benjamin Fletcher, governor of New York from 1692 to 1698, took protection money from pirates, stole from the public funds and cheated on customs duties. "To recount all his arts of squeezing money both out of...

July 11, 2007 One Haditha hero cleared David Allender The Investigative Officer in in the LCpl. Sharratt Article 32 hearing has recommended that murder charges be dropped. This clears one of the defendants in the so-called "Haditha massacre." One innocent man and brave soldier has been spared further agony in this disgraceful prosecution. I posted a copy of the IO's report here. LCpl. Sharratt was charged with three murders in house number four (Sgt. Wuterich was charged with a fourth murder in that house). The four dead Iraqis, the Ayed brothers, were described by Iraqi "witnesses" as having been herded...

When I went to my office Monday, July 7, 2003, Joe Wilson was not in the forefront of my mind. Frances Fragos Townsend was. She had just been named deputy national security adviser at the White House though her background was in liberal Democratic politics, including Attorney General Janet Reno's inner circle during the Clinton administration. Her appointment was a political mystery of the kind I had been exploring for forty years in my column. I wrote the Townsend column Tuesday morning because I had a busy schedule the rest of the day, including a 3 p.m. appointment with Richard...

`Suspicion' about Libby's commutation By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago The Democrat probing President Bush's decision to erase the prison sentence of a former White House aide said Sunday there is "the suspicion" the aide might have fingered others in the Bush administration if he served time. The House Judiciary Committee chairman spoke of "the general impression" that Bush last week commuted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 2 1/2 year sentence in the CIA leak case to keep Libby quiet. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has scheduled a committee hearing Wednesday on the matter. Bush contended Libby's sentence was...