For whatever reason there was a glitch in my post yesterday and I’ve received a number of comments that folks have not been able to access the federal grand jury subpoena issued to Penn State University about the sordid Sandusky investigation. So, here’s the direct link on the Penn State Not only is the content […]
READ MOREThe New York Times Weighs in on Open File Discovery and Brady
Not sure what prompted it, but the New York Times yesterday had an Opinion piece calling for the Department of Justice to “set a national example” by engaging in open file discovery. Noting that the Senator Stevens case prompted a Department wide review of policies related to the disclosure of Brady evidence (evidence favorable to […]
READ MOREMost Investors Do Not Know How to Recognize Investment Fraud
Investors who fall victim to investment fraud could face significant financial loss. Litigation provides recourse to investment fraud victims, but often shareholders and investors do not detect problems with the company they have invested in until the company is bankrupt or in serious financial trouble. A bankrupt company has limited or no assets to pay […]
READ MOREHearse and Body Stolen in Atlanta; Police Arrest Suspect
Man Steals Hearse for a Joy Ride, Finds Out Later a Corpse Came Along It’s a bad weekend when a family member dies. It only gets worse when the funeral home calls you later to say their hearse was stolen — and your loved one’s body was inside. Maybe the only one having a worse […]
READ MORENinth Circuit on ‘Good Faith’ Exception When Warrant Clearly Unsupported By Probable Cause
The U.S. v. Leon rule allowing officers to rely in “good faith” on what turns out to be an inadequate warrant does not apply when it was not objectively reasonable in the first place for the officers to believe that the warrant was supported by probable cause, a Ninth Circuit panel held today in U.S. […]
READ MORECalling Cops about Drug Deals That Go Bad
A man in Connecticut called 9-1-1 and complained to the police that his drug dealer had shorted him. He is now facing drug charges. Antonio Recinos not only called the police and explained to them his issue with the drug dealer but later, ran into a police patrolman and showed him a bag of blow […]
READ MORENew York City Settles Suit Over Abuses at Rikers Island
New York City has agreed to a settlement in the long-running legal battle over abuses at Rikers Island, the country’s second-largest jail system, federal and city officials said on Monday. The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio committed to a host of far-reaching reforms in the deal, including the appointment of a federal monitor, an […]
READ MOREAssessing the Effect of Crack Sentencing Retroactivity
What difference has it made that the federal sentencing guideline on crack cocaine was retroactively reformed? Depends who you ask. At the Heritage Foundation, Charles Stimson has a piece up right now essentially arguing that it’s important to keep statistics about the effect of the sentencing change. Stimson also writes It is inevitable, though, that […]
READ MORECA 2d District on Patdown Search for Identification
A patdown search merely to find a suspect’s identification is not okay under Terry v. Ohio. That’s the holding of People v. Garcia, B187453, decided today by the California Second District Court of Appeal. In this case, a police officer stopped a man for the heinous offense of riding a bike without a headlamp and […]
READ MORECA 4th District on Traffic Stop of Vehicle Without License Plates
A police officer does not violate the Fourth Amendment by conducting a traffic stop of a car that has no license plates, even if that car has valid temporary registration papers properly displayed, if the officer does not see those registration papers before conducting the stop. That’s the holding of the California Fourth District Court […]
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