|
|
|
Lawyer: Portugal denies US appeal for fugitive
Legal World News |
2011/12/24 00:01
|
Portugal's Supreme Court has refused a request from the U.S. to extradite American fugitive George Wright, his lawyer said Thursday.
Wright's lawyer Manuel Luis Ferreira said the court rejected an appeal by the U.S. against a lower court's decision that denied extradition a month ago.
"The Supreme Court has denied the appeal," Ferreira told The Associated Press. "They notified me today."
The U.S. can now appeal to Portugal's Constitutional Court if it chooses to.
Ferreira said he did not have details of the ruling. In Portugal, extradition cases are conducted in secret. Ferreira said Wright intends to remain in Portugal.
A Lisbon judge decided against Wright's extradition in November, two months after he was captured in Portugal following four decades on the run.
The U.S. Justice Department filed an appeal less than two weeks later.
Supreme Court officials weren't available to comment after office hours Thursday, and the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
The lower court judge had ruled that Wright, 68, had become a Portuguese citizen and that the statute of limitations on his 15- to 30-year sentence for a robbery-murder in New Jersey had expired, according to Ferreira. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pa.'s rhyming justice pens insurance fraud opinion
Court Feed News |
2011/12/22 18:15
|
A state Supreme Court justice known for opinions written in rhyme has done it again, producing six pages of verse Thursday in the case of whether the maker of a forged check also had committed insurance fraud.
Justice J. Michael Eakin, writing for a 4-2 majority, concluded in six-line stanzas that a man's attempt to deposit a forged check appearing to be from State Farm didn't constitute insurance fraud.
"Sentenced on the other crimes, he surely won't go free, but we find he can't be guilty of this final felony," Eakin wrote. "Convictions for the forgery and theft are approbated -- the sentence for insurance fraud, however, is vacated. The case must be remanded for resentencing, we find, so the trial judge may impose the result he originally had in mind."
A dissenting three-page opinion by Justice Thomas G. Saylor didn't rhyme.
Eakin was first elected to the high court in 2001 after earning a reputation as the "rhyming judge" by issuing some opinions entirely in verse while sitting on an intermediate state appellate court in the late 1990s. Two former state Supreme Court justices, Stephen A. Zappala and the late Ralph J. Cappy, had expressed concern in the past that the practice could reflect poorly on the court. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vulcan sues Martin Marietta over takeover bid
Business Law Info |
2011/12/22 15:16
|
Vulcan Materials has sued Martin Marietta in federal court, accusing the smaller gravel, sand and stone supplier of launching an illegal takeover attempt of Vulcan.
Vulcan, based in Birmingham, Ala., also on Wednesday strongly recommended that its shareholders not tender their stock to Martin Marietta, which announced a hostile bid for the company earlier this month.
Martin Marietta, based in Raleigh, N.C., has said it plans to take a stock offer directly to Vulcan shareholders after Vulcan cut off negotiations that started more than a year and a half ago.
Under the offer, valued at about $4.74 billion, Vulcan Materials Co. shareholders would get half a share of Martin Marietta Materials Inc. stock for each of their Vulcan shares. That offer valued Vulcan at $36.69 per share, a 9.4 percent premium, based on the stock's closing price Dec. 9, the last trading day before Martin Marietta's announcement.
Martin Marietta also said when it announced its bid that it had filed lawsuits in both Delaware Chancery Court and New Jersey state court to ensure Vulcan shareholders get a chance to consider its offer. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Environmental groups sue US over flood management
Headline News |
2011/12/22 13:15
|
The National Wildlife Federation filed a motion in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, asking a judge to stop the U.S. government from issuing any more flood insurance policies for new development in flood-prone areas around the Puget Sound until it changes its flood plain plans to consider the impact on endangered species like salmon and orcas.
The motion for a preliminary injunction is the latest move in a decades-long fight to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay more attention to endangered species, said Jan Hasselman, an attorney for Earthjustice, the environmental law firm that filed a motion in Seattle, on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation.
The environmental group won a lawsuit in 2004 that found FEMA did not create its flood plain management standards with the Endangered Species Act in mind. Hasselman said the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2008 issued a plan for changing the flood standards, setting various deadlines, the last of which recently passed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mentally disabled detainees granted class status
Legal Career News |
2011/12/21 14:42
|
A federal judge has granted class-action status to a case brought on behalf of mentally disabled detainees who lack legal representation in immigration court.
The order issued under seal in November by U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee was made public Monday. The case involves detainees in California, Washington and Arizona who have been deemed mentally incompetent to represent themselves.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant advocates want the federal government to appoint lawyers to represent mentally disabled detainees. Advocates brought the case last year on behalf of two men who had been detained for years.
A message left seeking comment at the Department of Justice was not immediately returned.
Immigrants are not required to use attorneys in deportation proceedings and attorneys are not provided free-of-charge in immigration court. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alleged Ponzi schemer due in court
Court Feed News |
2011/12/21 13:43
|
Former Albuquerque real estate executive Doug Vaughan is due in court Wednesday to plead guilty to charges stemming from allegations he ran Ponzi scheme that swindled some 600 investors out of $74 million.
Vaughan's attorney, Amy Sirignano, last week told The Associated Press Vaughan would be changing his plea to guilty in the case, but that details of the agreement were still being worked out.
Vaughan is scheduled to appear in court in Santa Fe Wednesday afternoon.
The change of plea hearing was scheduled just a few weeks after court documents were unsealed showing Vaughan's long-time assistant planned to testify against him.
Victims have been identified in New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Texas and Colorado. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Lawyer News Updates |
|
|
Lawyer News RSS
