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Infomercial host pleads guilty in Mass. to fraud
Lawyer Blog News | 2011/05/03 15:22

A Massachusetts man known for his infomercials touting the purported health benefits of coral calcium and Supreme Greens has pleaded guilty to tax and consumer fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors say Donald Barrett of Plymouth pleaded guilty on Monday to failing to report $573,000 in income from one of the products he sold on television and for marketing a product touted as preventing cancer and arthritis without approval of the Food and Drug Administration.

The 36-year-old Barrett faces up to three years in prison at sentencing scheduled for July 27. The Salem News reports that he is only expected to receive a year under terms of a plea agreement.

Barrett and his lawyer declined to comment after court.



NY man pleads guilty in 2005 samurai sword slaying
Criminal Law Updates | 2011/05/03 12:23

A man about to start a second trial for the 2005 samurai sword slaying of his sleeping stepfather, whom he had accused of sexually molesting him, pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter.

Zachary Gibian, 24, will be sentenced later this month to 25 years in prison, the Suffolk County district attorney's office said.

Gibian had been convicted of nearly beheading Scott Nager, a retired New York Police Department officer, as he slept on a couch at home in Hauppauge, on Long Island, but the state's highest court sided with an appeals court and ordered a new trial. It faulted the trial judge for not allowing testimony about statements made by Gibian's mother.

Gibian, who gave written and videotaped confessions to police just hours after the February 2005 killing, changed his story on the witness stand. He insisted his mother inflicted the fatal blows on Nager, who had an extensive war memorabilia collection, after she discovered her husband sexually abusing him. Prosecutors said there was no evidence of any sexual abuse in the home.

The mother, Laura Nager, maintained her innocence throughout the trial and wasn't charged.

Gibian claimed that numerous times, beginning when he was about 15, Nager would get drunk and force him to perform a sex act on him — sometimes with a pistol against the boy's head. He testified that his mother learned of the abuse the night before the killing, when she walked in on her husband and son in the teen's bedroom.

A key prosecution witness at the monthlong trial was Gibian's friend Troy "T.J." Harrelson, the son of former New York Mets star and manager Bud Harrelson. The younger Harrelson, who recalled few specific details because of his admitted use of marijuana, cocaine and painkillers, said he went to Gibian's home after his friend called him for a ride on the morning of the killing.

Harrelson said when Gibian got in his car, he admitted he had just killed his stepfather and then asked Harrelson to help him dispose of the murder weapon and other items in a trash bin behind a shopping mall.



California court rejects Phil Spector appeal
Lawyer Blog News | 2011/05/03 04:15

A California appeals court rejected music producer Phil Spector's bid to overturn his murder conviction on Monday, saying it was permissible for prosecutors to call a parade of women who said Spector had threatened them with guns in the past.

A three-member panel of the state 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed Spector's conviction in a strongly worded, 81-page decision rejecting a number of claims made by defense attorney Dennis Riordan.

The judges also dismissed the contention that actress Lana Clarkson was despondent and might have killed herself with a gun at Spector's home. In making that ruling, the panel pointed to evidence from her mother that suggested Clarkson was hopeful about the future.

The panel also concluded the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence to prove "Clarkson did not die by her own hand."

In addition, the judges found there was neither judicial nor prosecutorial misconduct at the trial, and that the testimony of five women who claimed Spector threatened them with guns was properly admitted, even though some of the incidents dated back 30 years.

Spector was never charged in those instances. Still, the judges said the testimony showed a pattern of gun-related behavior.



Polygamous church dispute may head to Utah court
Legal Career News | 2011/05/02 15:43
An internal tug-of-war over control of jailed polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs' southern Utah-based church may force Utah courts to walk a constitutional tightrope that experts say could tread a little too close to separation of church and state.

The presidency of the 10,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been in question since March 28, when church bishop William E. Jessop filed papers with the Utah Department of Commerce seeking to unseat Jeffs as president of the church corporation. Under state law, the move automatically put Jessop in power.

That set into motion a flurry of filings from Jeffs loyalists removing Jessop and claiming that some 4,000 church members have pledged their loyalty to their incarcerated leader.

Monday marks the deadline set by commerce officials for both parties to resolve the dispute or a legal showdown might be set in motion since, if no agreement is reached, the state says power will revert back to Jeffs.


Firm hired by GOP ends work on gay marriage ban
Law Firm News | 2011/05/02 15:41
A prominent law firm hired by Republican lawmakers to defend the federal ban on gay marriage said Monday it was withdrawing from the case amid criticism by advocacy groups, prompting the partner leading the work to quit.

The move by Atlanta-based King & Spalding is the latest flashpoint in the public debate over gay rights. Chairman Robert Hays Jr. said the firm chose to divorce itself from the controversy after determining that the decision to take the case wasn't vetted properly, but gay rights groups had also been pressuring the 800-lawyer company with plans for a protest Tuesday in Atlanta and with calls to its other clients. The groups cheered the move.

The decision, however, was sharply criticized by conservative groups, legal observers and the partner who had been handling the case, a former high-ranking Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. Washington-based attorney Paul Clement said he's moving to another law office so he can continue the work.

Clement had been retained by House Republican leaders after President Barack Obama ordered the Justice Department in February to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act. His administration said it believes the 1996 law, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, was unconstitutional.


More psych evaluation in castration killing case
Criminal Law Updates | 2011/05/02 14:42
A doctor will pay a second visit to a Portuguese model accused of castrating and killing a TV journalist in a Times Square hotel before his lawyer decides whether to pursue a psychiatric defense in the attack.

A psychiatrist visited Renato Seabra this month but needs a second evaluation of the 21-year-old model, defense attorney David Touger said Friday. Seabra was transferred two weeks ago from Bellevue Hospital to jail at Rikers Island, Touger said.

"He is medicated because he has a psychiatric illness. He is doing well under the circumstances that he is under," Touger said after a short pretrial hearing in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Seabra, a former contestant on a Portuguese talent-search show, has pleaded not guilty to murder in Carlos Castro's Jan. 7 death. Castro, a 65-year-old Portuguese TV personality and writer, was found dead, naked and bloodied in a room they were sharing.


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