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Polygamous family launches challenge of Utah law
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/12/20 14:17
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Reality TV stars Kody Brown and his four wives say they just want one thing: to be left alone.
As authorities investigate them for bigamy, the TLC "Sister Wives" family is asking a federal judge to overturn part of Utah's bigamy law because it bans them from living together and criminalizes sexual relationships between unmarried consenting adults.
"What they are asking for is the right to structure their own lives, their own family, according to their faith and their beliefs," said Jonathan Turley, their attorney, adding that the lawsuit is about privacy — not polygamy.
The case in federal court in Utah, however, could open up the possibility that a way of life for tens of thousands of self-described Mormon fundamentalists could be decriminalized.
While all states outlaw bigamy, some like Utah have laws that both prohibit having more than one marriage license at a time and also ban adults from living together and having a sexual relationship.
The latter provision could include same-sex couples, unmarried heterosexual couples and those, like the Browns, who do not have licenses but have created within their homes a marriage-like relationship. |
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Suspect's lawyer describes Minn. courthouse attack
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/12/16 17:26
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In the moments after authorities say a man just convicted in a criminal trial opened fire at a small northern Minnesota courthouse, it was his defense attorney who rushed to the aid of two shooting victims.
John Lillie III described a chaotic scene Thursday just minutes after his client, Daniel Schlienz, was convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Authorities have identified Schlienz, 42, as the man who shot the prosecutor who handled his case and another man.
In an interview with the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Lillie said he was speaking to Schlienz's mother when he heard a shot ring out inside the Cook County courthouse.
Lillie said he followed a man's pleas for help and found Gregory Thompson, of Grand Marais, wounded. He dragged Thompson outside, then re-entered the courthouse to warn workers. Lillie said he heard two more shots on the second floor and ran up to find Tim Scannell, the county prosecutor, bleeding from three gunshot wounds. |
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Penn State figures accused of lying head to court
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/12/14 13:56
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Jerry Sandusky's decision Tuesday to waive his preliminary hearing shifts the focus in the child sex-abuse scandal to two Penn State administrators accused of failing to properly report suspected abuse and lying to the grand jury investigating Sandusky.
Tim Curley and Gary Schultz face their own pretrial hearing on Friday in Harrisburg, and although the charges are much different, with far less severe potential penalties, their cases could hinge on a man also expected to be a prime witness against Sandusky: assistant football coach Mike McQueary.
McQueary testified that he happened upon "rhythmic, slapping sounds" in the football team locker room showers in March 2002, and looked in to see a naked boy being sodomized by the former defensive coordinator, according to a grand jury presentment.
McQueary, then a 28-year-old graduate assistant, reported what he saw to then-football coach Joe Paterno, the grand jury said. Paterno called Curley, the university's athletic director, the next day, and a week and a half later McQueary met with Curley and Schultz — who oversaw university police in his position as a vice president. |
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NY federal court showdown set over pregnancy pill
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/12/13 18:27
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A federal judge in Brooklyn is poised to hear arguments Tuesday over whether the federal government is acting constitutionally in its decisions over the access teenage girls are given to morning-after contraceptive pills.
The arguments come just a week after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled scientists at the Food and Drug Administration and announced that the pills would only be available without prescription to those 17 and older who can prove their age. President Barack Obama said he supported the decision regarding a pill that can prevent pregnancy if taken soon enough after unprotected sex.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups have argued that contraceptives are being held to a different and non-scientific standard than other drugs and that politics has played a role in decision making. Social conservatives have said the pill is tantamount to abortion.
Judge Edward Korman was highly critical of the government's handling of the issue when he ordered the FDA two years ago to let 17-year-olds obtain the medication. At the time, he accused the government of letting "political considerations, delays and implausible justifications for decision-making" cloud the approval process. |
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Appeals court affirms Petters conviction, sentence
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/12/09 21:11
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A federal appeals court Friday upheld the 2009 conviction and 50-year prison sentence of Minnesota businessman Tom Petters, who was found guilty of orchestrating a $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme.
The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Petters got a fair trial.
A three-judge panel rejected defense claims that the U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle prevented his attorneys from presenting a complete defense by restricting their ability to question a key prosecution witness, Larry Reynolds, a convicted felon and disbarred lawyer who was in the witness protection program, about his links to organized crime.
The panel also said the judge acted properly when he rejected proposed jury instructions that would have highlighted Petters' claims that he was an unwitting participant in a fraud conceived by others, and that he acted in good faith on advice from his attorney.
It ruled that the judge did not err by denying a change in venue due to the extensive media coverage the case generated. The panel also rejected defense claims of procedural errors in Petters' sentencing.
A jury found Petters guilty of 20 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
According to testimony and documents presented at trial, Petters Co. Inc. used fake purchase orders and phony bank records to dupe investors into financing what they were told would be purchases of electronics such as big-screen televisions that PCI would resell to discount retailers such as Sam's Club and Costco. In reality, the prosecution contended, the merchandise never existed and the sales never took place. |
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NYC lawyer: Boy a menace before shopping cart case
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/12/07 17:15
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Officials say a 13-year-old had a history of troubling behavior before he helped push a shopping cart that fell on a woman from a fourth-floor walkway at a New York City mall.
A city lawyer told a judge Tuesday the boy tried to run schoolmates over on his bike, threw things in the lunchroom and hit his mother's cat.
The attorney says the boy joked around at a police precinct after his Oct. 30 arrest and expressed more concern about his sneakers than about the woman who was seriously hurt.
The boy's lawyer says the teen needs and wants counseling for his behavioral problems.
The boy was charged as a juvenile and pleaded guilty in Family Court last month to assault. His sentencing was postponed Tuesday until later this month. |
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