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Coast Guardsman guilty in sexual misconduct case
Legal Watch |
2014/03/10 22:09
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Coast Guard officials in New Orleans say a petty officer has been convicted and sentenced on charges involving sexual assault and possession of child pornography.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher C. Bush's court martial was held in Norfolk, Va.
A Coast Guard news release said the 28-year-old Bush was convicted Friday on four violations of a Uniform Code of Military Justice article dealing with rape and sexual assault and one involving child pornography.
The crimes involved a junior Coast Guard woman and a civilian woman. They happened between January 2010 and May 2013 while Bush was stationed at a unit in New Orleans. The Coast Guard said it was not releasing the name of the unit to protect the privacy of the victims. |
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The Law Offices of Craig Hubble - Manhattan Beach Employment Lawyer
Legal Watch |
2013/07/26 17:39
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Manhattan Beach Employment Lawyer, Craig Hubble, is the aggressive representation you need and is someone who will devote their time and highest level of service to his clients in business entities including but not limited to commercial and civil litigation matters, employment matters such as wrongful termination, and class actions. We can help you obtain the results and outcome you want to see.
With over decades of experience working in some of the best law firms, our skill level allows us to give the best hands-on service to our clients. Even though we are located in Southern California, Law Offices of Craig Hubble practices in all state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout California. For most cases, we only charge if we get a favorable outcome.
To learn more about how the Law Offices of Craig Hubble can help you, contact us today for a free consultation. In many cases, we can arrange to meet near your home or office for your convenience. |
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Court: Legal status can't be used in civil cases
Legal Watch |
2013/07/18 06:24
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A person's legal status in the country can't be used in civil cases by attorneys to intimidate or coerce under a new rule approved by the Washington Supreme Court last week.
Since 2007, advocates have been working to make the change to the Rules of Professional conduct that attorneys licensed in the state must adhere to following. The lobbying began after members of the Latino/a Bar Association of Washington had seen attorneys and, in some cases, judges discuss a person's legal status in the country openly in court to intimidate.
"We thought it was unethical to do," said Lorena Gonzalez, who was president of the attorney association at the time. "We looked at the rules there was silence on the issue."
The rule does not affect criminal cases, but does cover civil matters, such as family disputes, personal injury claims, workplace cases, medical malpractice and other fields. |
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Court rejects cat hoarders' appeal of convictions
Legal Watch |
2013/07/08 18:08
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The Montana Supreme Court has denied the appeal of a northwestern Montana couple's conviction of aggravated cruelty to animals after 116 cats were found living in filthy, snowbound trailers.
The Daily Inter Lake reports the court announced the decision July 2 involving Edwin and Cheryl Criswell.
The cats were found in December 2010 and a jury the following year found the couple guilty. In October 2011 Cheryl Criswell received a two-year sentence deferred over six years. Edwin Criswell received a two-year suspended sentence but later violated his probation by testing positive for marijuana and methamphetamine. In January he was sentenced to two years in prison.
In September 2006, the Criswells entered Alford pleas to 10 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty in northern Idaho in what officials then called the largest animal hoarding case in state history involving 430 animals.
In the Montana case, the Criswells contended they were wrongly convicted because during the trial Flathead County Deputy Attorney Ken Park called them "professional freeloaders," prejudicing the jury. |
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Battle between SC Episcopalians back state court
Legal Watch |
2013/06/11 16:05
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The legal fight between two factions of South Carolina Episcopalians will be decided in state court.
U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck has issued an order saying the federal court has no jurisdiction and hearing the case would disrupt the balance between state and federal courts. Houck heard arguments in the dispute last week.
The conservative Diocese of South Carolina last year separated from the more liberal national Episcopal Church. The break-away churches then sued in state court to protect the use of the name and a half billion dollars' worth of property.
Parishes remaining with the national church then sued in federal court saying the case raised First Amendment and other federal issues.
But Houck disagreed and late Monday sent the case back to state court. |
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Court: Police can take DNA swabs from arrestees
Legal Watch |
2013/06/03 21:09
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A sharply divided Supreme Court on Monday said police can routinely take DNA from people they arrest, equating a DNA cheek swab to other common jailhouse procedures like fingerprinting.
"Taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court's five-justice majority.
But the four dissenting justices said that the court was allowing a major change in police powers.
"Make no mistake about it: because of today's decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason," conservative Justice Antonin Scalia said in a sharp dissent which he read aloud in the courtroom.
At least 28 states and the federal government now take DNA swabs after arrests. But a Maryland court was one of the first to say that it was illegal for that state to take Alonzo King's DNA without approval from a judge, saying King had "a sufficiently weighty and reasonable expectation of privacy against warrantless, suspicionless searches."
But the high court's decision reverses that ruling and reinstates King's rape conviction, which came after police took his DNA during an unrelated arrest. Kennedy wrote the decision, and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer. Scalia was joined in his dissent by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. |
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Court denies reporter's bid for AIG reports
Legal Watch |
2013/02/01 23:14
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An appeals court has turned down a reporter's effort to see an independent consultant's reports for American International Group, Inc.
A district court had granted the request from Sue Reisinger, a reporter for Corporate Counsel and American Lawyer magazines. The district court concluded the reports were judicial records, to which Reisinger had a common law right of access.
But a three-judge appeals court panel reversed the ruling Friday.
AIG hired the consultant as part of a court-approved consent decree with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle 2004 allegations of securities violations by the giant insurer.
The appellate judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, concluded the reports were not judicial records subject to release because the lower court in handling the settlement made no decisions about or based on them. |
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