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Court allows taping of US execution, denies stay
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/07/21 16:44
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Georgia's top court is allowing the videotaping of a death row inmate's execution in what would likely be the United States' first video-recorded execution in almost two decades. The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Fulton County judge's order that a recording of Andrew Grant DeYoung's execution could be made and then placed under seal. The justices voted 4-3 to deny DeYoung's bid to halt the 7 p.m. execution. Death penalty experts say it would be the first known recording of an execution since 1992. In that California case, the state's method of execution using lethal gas was under challenge. The request for the videotape was made by lawyers for another death row inmate challenging whether the use of the sedative pentobarbital causes needless suffering. |
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Lawmaker pleads not guilty to Conn. drug charge
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/07/21 12:45
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A Rhode Island state lawmaker has pleaded not guilty to drug possession and driving under the influence in Connecticut.
Rep. Robert Watson, a Republican from East Greenwich, entered his pleas Thursday in New Haven Superior Court.
Watson lost his job as Rhode Island’s House minority leader after his arrest in April in East Haven.
Police say the 50-year-old Watson had marijuana and cocaine in his system when he was pulled over at a drunken driving checkpoint.
Watson later said he had the marijuana to treat pain from pancreatitis, but didn’t smoke that day. He denied being drunk and using cocaine.
On Thursday, he said he “unequivocally” denies using cocaine. |
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Court reverses conviction on online Obama threat
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/07/20 16:16
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a man who posted Internet messages threatening Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.
A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Walter Bagdasarian's violent and racist screeds against Obama were "repugnant" but not criminal. The court also said it was obvious the San Diego man wasn't planning to attack the candidate and that the postings were protected by Bagdasarian's free speech rights.
Bagdasarian was convicted in 2009 of two felony counts of threatening a major presidential candidate.
Bagdasarian posted several messages to a Yahoo Finance message board in October 2008, including one that called Obama a racial epithet and another that said "he will have a 50 cal in the head soon" — a reference to a .50 caliber gun.
A retired Air Force officer forwarded the postings to the Secret Service. Yahoo provided Bagdasarian's subscriber information to investigators, who raided his house and seized six guns and a hard drive containing an email with similar sentiments.
Bagdasarian admitted posting the messages, but said he was drunk and joking.
He waived his right to a jury trial. District Judge Marilyn L. Huff found him guilty and sentenced him to 60-days in a half-way home.
But the appeals panel said no "reasonable person" could have taken seriously Bagdasarian's posts. |
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Ex-CEO convicted in scam at auto-chemical company
Court Feed News |
2011/07/20 16:16
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A former corporate executive officer of a New York-based automotive-chemical company was convicted Tuesday in a multimillion-dollar investor fraud scheme that enabled him to buy expensive jewelry and take private jets.
A jury in Manhattan state Supreme Court found Cleveland lawyer James Margulies guilty of charges including grand larceny and scheme to defraud. He faces up to 25 years on the top two counts, which could run consecutively. Bail was set at $1.5 million.
Ira London, an attorney for Margulies, said he planned to file "a very vigorous appeal."
"The jury has spoken. I believe they have convicted an innocent man," he said.
While serving as the company's finance chief — and briefly as CEO — of Industrial Enterprises of America, Inc., from 2004 to 2008, Margulies illegally issued millions of shares of stock to friends and relatives, inflating the share price by making the company look more profitable than it was, prosecutors said.
A teachers' pension fund in Ohio and a church were among the victims of the scheme, prosecutors said.
Margulies personally reaped more than $7 million, spending it on lavish luxuries such as a $350,000 diamond ring for his wife from jeweler Harry Winston, prosecutors said.
He also paid more than a million dollars on the mortgage of his first home, bought a second home and spent $500,000 on a vacation club membership, prosecutors said.
Margulies was charged in the scheme in 2010 along with John D. Mazzuto, who pleaded guilty Jan. 14 to his role in issuing fraudulent shares of stock. |
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Bank of Hawaii settles overdraft fee class-action lawsuit
Class Action News |
2011/07/20 16:15
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A tentative $9 million settlement with Bank of Hawaii requires the bank to pay each of its customers who had more than one overdraft fee in a day over the last five years.
Bank of Hawaii, the state's second-largest bank, reached the class-action lawsuit settlement in response to claims that the bank improperly charged overdraft fees on debit card transactions, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday.
The lawsuit accused the bank of systematically re-ordering debit card transactions from highest dollar amount to lowest dollar amount, a practice that allowed the bank to deplete customers' available funds as quickly as possible while maximizing the number of overdraft fees.
The $9 million will be put in a settlement fund used to refund customers and pay attorneys' fees, administrative and other costs in exchange for a complete release of all claims against the company, the bank said. It's unclear how many Bank of Hawaii customers are eligible for refunds.
Similar lawsuits against American Savings Bank and Central Pacific Bank, the state's third- and fourth-largest banks, also are pending. |
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Paralegal accused of stealing from law firm
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/07/20 10:35
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Authorities say a South Florida paralegal stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her Fort Lauderdale law firm.
Miami-Dade officials on Tuesday charged 53-year-old Brenda Wilcott-Kelly with more than 80 felonies, including grand theft and forging documents. Records show she's also took money from a lawyer who was on his deathbed.
Employees of Hermelee & Geffin were in court Tuesday as Judge Dennis Murphy set Wilcott-Kelly's bond at $116,000.
Defense attorney Morgan Cronin said his client is innocent.
According to the arrest affidavit, Wilcott-Kelly took $82,472 from the firm to pay off her husband's credit cards. She is also accused of stealing $31,050 from lawyer Steven A. Schultz, while he was in the hospital. Schultz leased space from the firm. |
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