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The gun control laws in Washington D.C. are among the nation’s most strict and were upheld by a federal judge as constitutional. The ruling was in line with the landmark U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2008 decision striking down D.C.’s old handgun ban and rejected assertions that the city’s current gun laws are too restrictive, the Washington Post reports. Gun control laws in Washington D.C. require gun owners to go through a step-by-step process including five hours of safety training and undergo criminal background checks every six years....

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear five gay marriage appeals, along with hundreds of other cases. In an 81-page Order List issued Monday, the High Court detailed a slew of cases that it would hear in its 2014 Term (which began today), but gay marriage cases from five states were not among them. By denying certiorari in these cases, gay marriage will become legal in at least five more states....

The question of whether police can your read text messages hasn’t gotten any clearer since the Supreme Court declined to decide the issue back in 2010. The most recent ruling on the issue comes out of Rhode Island where a judge found that police could not read a person’s private text messages without a warrant. Michael Patino was arrested after police arrived at his girlfriend’s home responding to an emergency call and looked at his cell phone....

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has reversed the aggravated assault conviction of former Air Force Tech. Sgt. David J.A. Gutierrez for withholding his HIV diagnosis from sexual partners. But the court upheld a lesser assault conviction for Gutierrez based on his former sexual partners’ not giving informed consent to sexual activity because he hadn’t told them about his HIV status. HIV and Assault Many states have HIV disclosure laws that require HIV-positive people to inform sexual partners of their status before engaging in intercourse....

School’s (almost) out for summer in Rye, N.Y., which apparently means one thing: an annual paddling ritual known as “Freshman Friday” – which this year led to three arrests for criminal hazing and assault. “Freshman Friday” is akin to the hazing depicted in the 1993 movie “Dazed and Confused,” in which high-school upperclassmen track down incoming freshmen and beat them with wooden paddles. But in Rye, N.Y., last week, the paddling was so brutal that one victim had to be treated at a hospital, according to ABC News....

Some call it typecasting. Some call it being a bit player. Dimitri Diatchenko calls it a career. He’s not a household name, but you’ve probably seen him on television or in a movie, or heard his voice in a video game. Diatchenko is the guy they call when they need a Boris, Yuri, or Olag – the “big muscular Russian gangster” archetype. His credits include “2 Broke Girls,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Sons of Anarchy,” and on the silver screen, “G....

At just 28 years old, ‘Sons of Anarchy’ star Johnny Lewis is dead and the circumstances are hard to put together. Lewis was found outside his home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday, sprawled on the driveway. Inside the home, his landlord, 81-year-old Katherine Chabot Davis, was found dead as well, reports ABC News. The events that led to their deaths are unclear, but police do have reports from neighbors on what happened....

New information indicates that spray tanning may cause cancer; just when you thought it was safe. Emphasis here is on the word “may.” There’s some preliminary research that a chemical in spray tan, called DHA, may cause genetic mutations to cells in Petri dishes. There’s currently no evidence that DHA does cause cancer but there’s no evidence that it doesn’t either. Spray tan companies have previously told clients that a spray tan is completely safe but that may not have been their smartest move....

A $3 million Henri Matisse painting stolen from a South American art museum has been found in Florida, and the alleged thieves were caught red-handed. Or make that, red pants-ed. Matisse’s “Odalisque in Red Pants” was stolen from a museum in Venezuela in 2002 and replaced with a fake, CNN reports. An international painting-hunt ensued, but authorities failed to track down the pricey masterpiece. That is, until Tuesday, when a man and a woman allegedly tried to sell the pilfered painting to undercover FBI agents in Miami....

Sports gambling isn’t a federal crime. After all, why can you go to Vegas and place wagers on just about any game you like? But a federal law did allow federal authorities and sports leagues to sue states for “authorizing” sports betting, and block them from doing so. This small distinction was the statute’s undoing, as the Supreme Court repealed the law, leaving it up to the states to legalize or criminalize sports betting....

Money can buy a lot of things, allegedly even a favorable child custody decision for R&B star Usher. An Atlanta judge recently granted Usher sole custody of his two children in a contested battle with his ex-wife, Tameka Raymond. But Raymond vowed to appeal the decision, arguing the judge who heard the case was biased. That’s because the law firm representing Usher threw an election fund-raising party for Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane back in 2008, reports BET....

Although many criminal charges are very specific, others, such as criminal mischief, can encompass a wide variety of criminal behavior. Criminal mischief generally includes what is commonly known as vandalism, dealing mainly with crimes committed against property such as defacing someone’s building with graffiti or breaking the windows of a business. Although vandalism may be included under state criminal statutes forbidding “criminal damage” or “malicious trespass,” in many states, vandalism may be charged as criminal mischief....

San Francisco police routinely mishandled a device used in field sobriety tests – mistakes that may get as many as 1,000 DUI convictions overturned, the city’s public defender said. Police failed to conduct “accuracy checks” on a device called the Alco-Sensor IV, used to measure blood-alcohol levels, Bay City News reports. Officers should have performed accuracy checks – to ensure the device was correctly calibrated – every 10 days, according to the manufacturer....

A federal criminal complaint charges three African men (Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman) – alleged members of the terrorist groups al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) – with conspiring to commit acts of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to provide material support to FARC, another U.S. designated terrorist group located in Colombia. The criminal complaint (see below) contends that several confidential sources of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) played a key role in the case, discovering that the three defendants openly held themselves out as member of al Qaeda or AQIM, and were willing to help transport cocaine through Africa for FARC to help facilitate narcotic trade to Europe....

Tomorrow is Constitution Day, which commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. What does the Constitution have to do with criminal law? Not everyone is familiar with the specific rights guaranteed by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. Fortunately, if you are arrested or accused of a crime, you’re entitled to these rights, whether you know them or not. That being said, knowing your rights will help you determine when they are being violated....

Will American Amanda Knox go free? Even the Italian prosecutor is now predicting that both Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox will be acquitted after some recent blows to the prosecution’s case. Knox and her then-boyfriend Sollecito were convicted in December 2009 for the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perguia, Italy. They are now embroiled in an appeals process that could either free them from jail or affirm their sentences....

With tax season comes tax scam season. One scam that’s being called out this year is a telephone scam demanding immediate payment of back taxes. Many people are receiving threatening and aggressive pre-recorded phone calls from someone claiming to be with the IRS saying they owe thousands of dollars in back taxes. Potential victims are directed to provide credit, debit, or prepaid card numbers over the telephone. Victims are also threatened with arrest, deportation, having the utilities shut off, or having driver’s licenses revoked....

A man who allegedly planted a backback containing a rice cooker at the Boston Marathon finish line has been arrested and charged with possession of a hoax explosive device. Later identified as Kevin Edson, 25, the Boston man was spotted on Tuesday night “barefoot, yelling, and holding a backpack.” Bomb squads were called in to safely dispose of Edson’s backpack and another unattended backpack left by a news crew, both of which were not deemed to be explosive, reports The Washington Post....

Can you think of a company that needs bad news any less than BP? One would be hard pressed to do so. Unfortunately, the company is in the headlines yet again, this time after agreeing to pay a $50 million fine for violations of safety regulations at its Texas City refinery. The facility is the company’s largest refinery, producing nearly 460,000 barrels of oil per day. Attorneys for the workers killed and injured in the 2005 Texas accident applauded the $50M fine agreement....

A man sleeping in his pickup truck was awakened during a burglary attempt. The sleeping man did what you’d think a Texan would do. He shot at the burglar. The incident occurred near Houston in a Wells Fargo parking lot as the unidentified burglary victim was sleeping in the backseat of his pickup truck. The man was waiting for his wife to transact business inside when he heard a large crash and was stunned by the brazen burglary attempt, reports the Houston Chronicle....