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NY man suing Facebook must explain missing items
Legal Career News |
2011/08/18 09:12
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A judge gave Facebook access to the personal email accounts of a man suing for half ownership of the social networking website and ordered him to explain why he can't produce documents its lawyers believe are evidence.
Proof that Paul Ceglia's case is a fraud has been sitting on a Chicago law firm's email server since 2004, Facebook attorney Orin Snyder told the federal judge on Wednesday.
An email that Ceglia sent to a former business associate at the firm includes a scanned version of the two-page contract he and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg signed, Snyder said. Unlike the one Ceglia filed, it doesn't mention Facebook, only a street-mapping database Ceglia had hired Zuckerberg to work on, he said.
"The noose is tightening around the neck of this plaintiff, and he knows it," Snyder said during a four-hour procedural hearing that had each side accusing the other of dirty tricks.
Snyder said Ceglia had artificially aged his "phony" contract with light and chemicals, backdated computer files and transferred others to portable storage devices, which he'd likely tossed into Lake Erie.
Ceglia's attorney, Jeffrey Lake, countered that Facebook had tried to "poison the jury pool" by releasing what should have been confidential documents and implied Facebook had planted damning evidence on Ceglia's computers, a statement he backed away from after the hearing. |
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EPA settles with owners of Mass. chemical plant
Legal Career News |
2011/08/17 17:29
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The owners of a suburban Massachusetts chemical plant that exploded in 2006, destroying dozens of homes, have agreed to pay the federal government an estimated $1.3 million to help cover the cost of cleaning up the hazardous waste that was left behind.
The Environmental Protection Agency said a consent decree unveiled Monday requires the companies to pay for some of the $2.7 million spent by the agency to clean up the site after the explosion in Danvers, a town about 25 miles north-northeast of Boston.
The EPA said the action resolves claims against former operator CAI Inc. and property owners Sartorelli Realty LLC and Roy Nelson, of the Nelson Danvers Realty Trust.
The EPA also announced that CAI will pay $100,000 to settle allegations that conditions at the facility violated the federal Clean Air Act. The $1.3 million includes cash and the net proceeds from the sale of the property, assuming the property sells for its appraised value, the agency said.
A series of explosions at the ink and paint factory shared by CAI and Arnel Co. Inc. on Nov. 22, 2006, damaged 270 local homes and businesses. No one was killed or seriously injured. |
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HTC sues Apple in latest round of patent dispute
Court Feed News |
2011/08/17 17:26
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HTC filed the latest lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., where Apple Inc. had sued HTC a year ago. Both companies also have brought complaints before the U.S. International Trade Commission, which has the power to block imports of devices and parts found to infringe on a company's intellectual property.
In the latest case, HTC sought unspecified damages and a ban that would prevent Apple from using the technologies in question. HTC said affected products include the iPhone, the iPad tablet computer, Mac notebook and desktop computers and iPod music players. HTC's patents cover such things as integrating a device's computing and communications functions — something basic to all smartphones. |
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2 enter guilty pleas in GOP corruption case
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/08/17 17:24
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Two people who worked for former House Speaker John Perzel have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a public corruption investigation of the House Republican Caucus.
Samuel Stokes, a former House employee and brother-in-law to Perzel, pleaded guilty to one count of conflict of interest and one count of criminal conspiracy.
Don McClintock, a former campaign aide to Perzel, entered a guilty plea for one count of criminal conspiracy.
Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.
Stokes and McClintock were facing at least a dozen counts charging them with conflict of interest, theft and conspiracy, but agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of other defendants as part of an agreement with the state attorney general's office.
Paul Towhey, Perzel's former chief of staff, was expected to enter a guilty plea on Friday.
Perzel, Rep. Brett Feese, and five other current and former aides were charged in November 2009 after a grand jury found they used taxpayers' funds, employees and resources for political campaign purposes. |
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Okla. man pleads not guilty to gas pipeline bomb
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/08/17 17:23
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An Oklahoma man accused of attaching a homemade bomb to a natural gas pipeline has pleaded not guilty. Forty-year-old Daniel Herriman entered the plea Tuesday before Magistrate Judge Kimberly West in U.S. District Court in Muskogee. The FBI says Herriman was arrested Friday after calling 911 and telling the Seminole County Sheriff's Office he had planted a bomb on the pipeline and wanted to surrender. The FBI alleges Herriman admitted making the device and placing it on the pipeline Aug. 7 with a timer set to detonate at 2 a.m. The device did not explode and there was no damage. FBI spokesman Clay Simmonds said the agency doesn't know of a motive. The bomb was discovered Wednesday at the Enerfin Resources substation near Okemah in Okfuskee County. |
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NY governor signs government ethics law
Headline News |
2011/08/16 15:31
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a new law Monday to strengthen ethics enforcement for state officials and workers. The measure, which the Democratic governor proposed and lawmakers approved, establishes a new 14-member Joint Commission on Public Ethics to oversee and investigate compliance by lawmakers. It will also monitor statewide elected officials as well as executive branch and legislative employees while overseeing registration and conduct of lobbyists. Six members will be chosen by the governor, with at least three from a different political party. Eight will be selected by legislative leaders: four Democrats and four Republicans. Those functions have been handled by the Commission on Public Integrity, which will close, and the Legislative Ethics Commission, which will have authority to impose penalties following the new panel's investigations. Until the new group is up and running, expected in four months, the current integrity commission with a staff of 46 and with 61 pending cases is stopping investigations and hearings but will continue to collect information. |
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