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Reputed drug lord pleads not guilty in US court
Lawyer Blog News |
2008/08/26 16:04
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A reputed drug lord who was extradited to the United States last week from Brazil has pleaded not guilty in a large cocaine smuggling scheme. Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia entered the plea Monday in federal court in Brooklyn and was ordered held without bail. U.S. prosecutors allege that Ramirez Abadia was a leader of a Colombian cartel that shipped cocaine worth $10 billion into the United States between 1990 and 2003. They also say Ramirez Abadia, whose nickname is "Lollipop," played key roles in the killings of rivals. He was captured last year in Brazil, where he was living in a luxurious home. |
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Battle over faked Holocaust book in Mass. court
Court Feed News |
2008/08/26 08:03
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It was a shock to Misha Defonseca's readers this year when she admitted that the best-selling story of her tortured childhood during the Holocaust was false, but her U.S. publisher saw it as an opportunity to undo a stinging, 7-year-old court judgment. Jane Daniel says she never would have been ordered to pay Defonseca and her ghost writer $32.4 million over her handling of profits from "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years" had the jury known the book was filled with lies. Defonseca never lived with wolves to escape the Nazis, never killed a German soldier in self-defense, never walked 3,000 miles across Europe in search of her parents. Contrary to the book's claims, Defonseca admitted in February that she isn't even Jewish. Daniel is asking a judge to throw out the verdict; a hearing is set for Thursday in Middlesex Superior Court. "This is a case where everyone was so enamored and felt so much sympathy for the Holocaust survivor, it just overwhelmed everyone in the case, including the jury," Daniel said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Now to find out that the book was not true, that is fraud on the court." Defonseca and her ghost writer, Vera Lee, said the truth of the 1997 book had no bearing on the jury's finding that Daniel cheated them out of profits. |
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Indictments to stand against DeLay associates
Lawyer Blog News |
2008/08/25 15:23
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An appeals court has declined to throw out money-laundering indictments against two of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political operatives, who had claimed that state elections law used to charge them was too confusing to proceed. Attorneys for Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, who operated Texans for a Republican Majority during the 2002 campaign, argued that the 3rd Court of Appeals should toss out their indictments because the laws used against them were vague and too broad. In arguments made to the appeals court two years ago, Travis County prosecutors disagreed, urging the court to let the prosecution continue. In a lengthy opinion issued Friday, the court affirmed the finding of a lower court and declined to dismiss the indictments. "The challenged statutes give constitutionally adequate notice of the conduct prohibited and sufficiently determinate guidelines for law enforcement," 3rd Court of Appeals Justice Alan Waldrop writes in the opinion. In 2002, Texans for a Republican Majority sent $190,000 in corporate checks to the Republican National Committee. The RNC, in turn, sent $190,000 of money collected from individuals to seven Texas candidates. A Travis County grand jury indicted Ellis, Colyandro and DeLay on money-laundering charges in 2005. Prosecutors argue that the transaction was an attempt to turn corporate money that is illegal in Texas elections into legal donations to GOP candidates. The defense argues that it was separate, legal transactions. DeLay, who resigned from Congress in 2006, was not a party to the appeal. |
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Lone accountant takes on IRS and wins
Lawyer News |
2008/08/25 15:22
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It took seven years, but Charles Ulrich did something many people dream about, but few succeed at: He beat the IRS in a tax dispute. Not only that, but tax experts say potentially millions of other taxpayers could benefit from his victory. The accountant from Baxter, Minn., challenged the method the IRS has used for more than 20 years to tax shares and cash distributed by mutual life insurance firms to their policyholders when they reorganize as public companies. A federal court recently agreed with his interpretation. "There's a tremendous amount of money at stake," said Robert Willens, a New York City-based tax analyst at Robert Willens LLC. "Tens of thousands of people could be in line for a refund." Don Alexander, an IRS commissioner in the 1970s and now a tax attorney in Washington, said while it's not unusual for individuals to take on the agency, "most of them lose." Alexander called it "quite a significant case." The dispute arose when more than 30 mutual life insurance companies became publicly traded corporations in the late 1990s and earlier this decade, in a process known as "demutualization." Mutual companies are owned by their policyholders, so the companies provided stock and cash to compensate them for the loss of their ownership interests when they went public. |
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Gay marriage foes mobilize for ban in California
Lawyer Blog News |
2008/08/25 15:22
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Michael Bumgarner says he's never campaigned for a political cause before, but his strong opposition to same-sex marriage has prompted him to join thousands of volunteers going door-to-door in support of a ballot initiative that would ban gay nuptuals here. "I've never stumped before, but I want to be a part of this," Bumgarner said. The retired insurance executive and devout Mormon said his late mother would "turn over in her grave" if she knew that gays and lesbians could marry. With less than 11 weeks until Election Day, supporters of Proposition 8 are ramping up their field organization and refining their message as they seek to persuade California voters to shut the door on same-sex marriage. It's the first time voters will be asked to weigh in on the issue in either California or Massachusetts — the states where gays have won the right to wed. An estimated 15,000 backers of the measure, most of them members of Mormon, Catholic and evangelical Christian churches, knocked on doors and distributed campaign literature to registered voters throughout the state this weekend and last, according to Jennifer Kerns, spokeswoman for the Yes on 8 campaign. The initiative is a constitutional amendment, similar to ones already enacted in 26 other states, that would overturn the California Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. It needs a simple majority of votes to pass. |
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Detroit mayor returns to court in assault case
Legal Career News |
2008/08/22 16:05
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A court hearing could determine if Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will be allowed to attend the Democratic National Convention. Kilpatrick was scheduled to be arraigned Friday on charges of assaulting two Wayne County investigators. It's one of two criminal cases against the mayor, who denies shoving the pair while they tried to deliver a subpoena to a friend. Kilpatrick is barred from traveling outside the metro Detroit area. Those bond restrictions likely will be discussed at the arraignment. The mayor also is required to wear an electronic tether to monitor his whereabouts. In Kilpatrick's other criminal case, involving allegations of perjury and obstruction of justice, a judge has said he can go to Denver for the convention. |
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