RIAA Takes a Break From the Joys of Suing Women and Children

December 23rd, 2008   Filed Under Legal News  

Not exactly a criminal defense matter. These cases were dealt with on the “civil” end of the law. Still, the RIAA made innocent people feel like criminals. ”…it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.” Classy. Way to go RIAA. 

In the alternative, the RIAA is going to work with the Internet Service Providers (and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo) to stem the flow of music downloads. This has been the strategy of the movie industry. Letters and emails go out to the alleged offender telling them to cease and desist. RIAA is still reserving the right to sue anyone that ignores the warning letters from the Internet Service Provider. Read the full article here.

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Charges possible in WSP fake diploma case

December 10th, 2008   Filed Under Legal News  

THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. — Prosecutors will now decide whether to charge nine state troopers with theft for allegedly using fake diplomas to get pay raises. 

Prosecutors said word of mouth is how information about obtaining allegedly fake diplomas made the rounds of the Washington State Patrol. 

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jon Tunheim said the nine troopers, who worked all across the state, are connected by the way in which they learned about the alleged fake diplomas. 

“One of the reasons that this went out to a number of troopers is because the word kind of got passed out that this had happened with other troopers,” he said. 

The State Patrol began investigating after federal agents shut down a diploma mill in Spokane that had already awarded thousands of fake diplomas. However, the agency won’t say if the nine troopers got their diplomas from the Spokane operation.

Following tips that there may be more troopers involved, the Problem Solvers obtained a database from the State Patrol for all 567 troopers getting extra pay. An examination of the database revealed no indication that other troopers had questionable degrees from non-existent schools. 

“My first impression is that the investigation here has been very thorough,” Tunheim said. 

Troopers can boost their pay significantly with college diplomas — a 2-percent increase for a two-year degree and a 4-percent hike for a four-year degree.

Prosecutors will have to decide if the troopers were intentionally seeking these diplomas to defraud the state.

“What wasn’t passed around is ‘hey, this is a good way to defraud our employer.’ What was passed around was ‘hey, this is a way that we could qualify, perhaps, for this incentive,”‘ said Tunheim. 

A tenth trooper has been added to the investigation, but that investigation is on hold because he is currently overseas on military deployment. 

Prosecutors expect to make a decision on charges by the end of the month. 

Full Article by Tracy Vedder on KOMO here. 

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Gitmo Pleas(e)

December 9th, 2008   Filed Under Legal News  

Full Article by Rick Anderson in the Seattle Weekly, here.  It was the wise trial work of Seattle attorneys Harry Schneider and Joe McMillan that got Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, released from Guantanamo Bay a few weeks ago. Now, apparently in revolt against their own attorneys, alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others accused of the Sept. 11 plot have chosen a political strategy: confess instead of going to trial, then challenge the U.S. to kill them.

“We don’t want to waste our time with motions,” Mohammed, captured in Pakistan in 2003, told a judge today. “All of you are paid by the U.S. government. I’m not trusting any American.”

The NY Times says the pleas didn’t come as a complete surprise. “There had been indications for months that the detainees were resisting working with the military lawyers assigned to represent them.” But the confessions by the five, who face the death penalty, were also seen as a way they could air their political views without the government having the opportunity to detail their roles in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. Reports the Times:

The American political calendar may also be a factor. Many people inside and outside the government expect President-elect Obama to close down the military commissions that have been used by the Bush administration, and to direct that many detainees now held in Guantánamo Bay be prosecuted instead in the civilian American legal system.

If that happens, today’s proceedings will have been the defendants’ last opportunity to challenge a seriously flawed military justice system – as opposed to the less-flawed federal system - and publicly seek martyrdom. 

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Stunning

December 7th, 2008   Filed Under Uncategorized  

You can read Reason blogs coverage here. 

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Just Cause

December 6th, 2008   Filed Under Education, Website  

A great website that provides a primer on some important topics:

 

 

 

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