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Court denies motion to stop Loughner medication
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/07/25 10:02
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A federal court Friday night denied an emergency motion by defense lawyers to keep prison officials in Missouri from forcibly medicating the Tucson shooting rampage suspect with a psychotropic drug.
In a one-page ruling, judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also denied a request by Jared Lee Loughner's attorneys for daily reports about his condition at a federal prison facility in Springfield, Mo.
The judges said their denial is without prejudice to the defense seeking appropriate relief in the district court. The 9th Circuit had previously scheduled an Aug. 30 hearing in San Francisco on an appeal by Loughner's lawyers over forced medication. It wasn't immediately clear if that hearing will still be held.
Calls to lead Loughner attorney Judy Clarke for comment Friday night weren't immediately returned.
Federal prosecutors said in a filing earlier Friday that Loughner should remain medicated because he may be a danger to himself and his mental and physical condition was rapidly deteriorating.
Loughner's attorneys questioned Thursday whether the forced medication violates an earlier order by the 9th Circuit that forbid prison officials from involuntarily medicating Loughner as the court mulls an appeal on his behalf. They also said their client has been on 24-hour suicide watch.
U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke wrote in his filing Friday that "despite being under suicide watch, Loughner's unmedicated behavior is endangering him and that no measure short of medication will protect him from himself more than temporarily because they do not address the mental state which underlies his self-destructive actions." |
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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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DC killing suspect escapes by switching identities
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/07/18 15:17
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Authorities searched Saturday for a man charged with first-degree murder who allegedly swapped identities with another prisoner and walked out of a Washington courthouse. U.S. Marshals spokesman David Neumann said officials are looking for 24-year-old James Brewer, a suspect in a fatal shooting in Washington in June. Neumann said authorities are still investigating how Brewer escaped Friday. D.C. Superior Court records, however, say that before Brewer was called before a judge, he switched identification bracelets with a prisoner arrested on a drug charge. Brewer then apparently posed as the other person and was released because the charge, possession of PCP, is a misdemeanor. Brewer is described as a black man, 5 feet, 9 inches tall, about 180 pounds with dreadlocks. Brewer, who also goes by "Sticky," is considered armed and dangerous. Officials say he is known to travel to Newport News, Va., where he was arrested Thursday. He may also be interested in traveling to Philadelphia. |
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Man in court for NY-to-LA flight stowaway charges
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/07/18 12:14
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A Nigerian American man is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Los Angeles on charges he breached airport security in New York and got a free ride on an LA-bound flight.
Twenty-four-year-old Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of being a stowaway and attempting to enter a secure area of an airport by fraud or false pretense.
Authorities say he boarded a flight in New York June 24 using an expired boarding pass with someone else's name on it. The Virgin America crew didn't realize until mid-flight that an extra passenger was in a premium seat that was supposed to be empty.
Noibi spent several days in Los Angeles and was arrested when he tried to board a Delta flight with another expired pass. |
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Florida man pleads guilty in Idaho abduction, rape
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/07/13 15:17
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A Florida man has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping an Idaho woman in 2003.
Prosecutors say 27-year-old Douglas James Steinemer participated in the attack with his father, a long-haul trucker who has already been sentenced to life in prison. Steinemer will be sentenced Oct. 4.
Police say he approached the woman outside a Mountain Home store and used a knife to force her into a semitrailer truck where he and his father raped her several times as the men drove west. She was dropped off on the side of Interstate 84 near the Oregon border.
The Idaho Statesman reports Steinemer became a suspect last year after he was arrested in Florida and a DNA sample matched the Idaho case. Steinemer named his father, Hans Holsopple, as an accomplice. |
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Ex-law firm office manager sentenced for theft
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/07/11 07:47
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The former office manager of a northern New Jersey law firm has been sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing more than $400,000 from her employers.
The firm's owners say the thefts Beth Friedland committed between 2003 and January 2010 caused serious financial problems and forced them to lay off staff and associates. The Roxbury Township resident pleaded guilty in March to theft by unlawful taking, admitting she stole $448,721 from the Chatham-based firm of Maloof, Lebowitz, Connahan &Oleske.
The firm, though, claims Friedland took $1.1 million overall and has sued her to regain those funds.
Friedland must serve about 17 months of the sentence imposed Friday before becoming eligible for parole. Her husband, Alex Cruz, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, was sentenced Friday to three years probation. |
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