Posts

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the end of a six week long, nationwide, transnational gang enforcement surge. The focus of the operation, eerily named “Project New Dawn,” was to target gang members involved in drug, weapon, or human trafficking, as well as those implicated in murder and racketeering investigations. The operation is being hailed as a success: 1,095 confirmed gang members were arrested in the sweep. Of the 1,378 people taken into custody, 933 were U....

Two New Orleans police officers convicted last year in the killing of a man during the chaos following Hurricane Katrina were sentenced Thursday in federal court. In the wake of the hurricane, when the public needed the police the most, these officers betrayed that trust and killed a man, the sentencing judge said. Former Officer David Warren got more than 25 years in prison, and current officer Greg McRae was sentenced to more than 17 years, the AP reports....

A $657.5 million settlement was reached in the 9/11 World Trade Center lawsuit. Rescue and recovery workers who were exposed to toxic substances at the World Trade Center site filed suit in 2003 and finally reached an agreement on Thursday night, after years of legal battles. There is a catch, however. In order for the settlement to take effect, 95 percent of the plaintiffs of the World Trade Center Lawsuit must accept the terms of the settlement....

For Sonja Morgan, judgment by a U.S. Court of Appeals means that she will be paying $7 million for pulling out of a film titled “Fast Flash to Bang Time.” Morgan, star of the Real Housewives of New York, declared bankruptcy in November. According to the court, Morgan’s conduct to Hannibal Pictures, who was making “Fast Flash to Bang Time” was fraudulent. Reportedly, Morgan pulled out because talks with John Travolta, said to have been in talks to star in the creatively-named film, was demanding “various conditions” that her company was not able to provide....

A new report, issued by the Environmental Defense Fund, probably has some parents ready to get litigious. The report explains that in looking at over 10 years of FDA data, from 2003 to 2013, approximately 20 percent of the 2,000 baby food products tested contained lead. That’s one in every five products. Unfortunately, neither the FDA’s data, nor did the report, name the names of the offending products. Before parents start climbing the walls, clearing out the cabinets, and calling their lawyers, know that the products still fell within what the FDA determined to be an acceptable level of lead contamination....

Victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are suing a gun manufacturer and its distributors for those killed and injured in the tragedy. According to Slate, at least nine families and one teacher have joined the lawsuit filed Monday, which will attempt to hold Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the XM15-E2S semi-automatic rifle used to kill 26 at Sandy Hook, legally responsible. The suit also names dozens of other companies believed to have been involved in distributing or selling the particular rifle used in the Sandy Hook massacre....

“Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” The Worse May Be Yet to Come Musk’s pain threshold may see some further testing. Sources say that the Justice Department is also running a criminal investigation regarding this matter, and that the SEC has sent subpoenas to Goldman Sachs and Silver Lake, two investment companies that may have helped Musk try to secure the private funding. Musk wouldn’t be the first billionaire to end up in a federal prison over an SEC violation....

The U.S. Supreme Court has sent a contentious adoption case back to South Carolina’s Supreme Court. In a 5-4 ruling, justices reversed the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. South Carolina’s highest court had affirmed a lower court’s ruling to award custody of the girl to her biological father, a Cherokee Indian who cited the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in support of his custody claim....

The U.S. Supreme Court has beefed up a federal law preventing domestic violence convicts from possessing a gun, even if there was no proof of actual “violence” or injury. In a unanimous decision, the High Court ruled last week that the federal ban applied even to those domestic violence convicts who had pleaded guilty without there being evidence of physical abuse, reports the Los Angeles Times. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote this opinion for the Court, which may close a loophole that had existed in federal law for almost 20 years....

A Target wooden stool recall has been expanded after at least 27 reports of broken stools has left consumers with broken wrists and hips. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a voluntary recall Tuesday of about 341,000 storage-style step stools. That’s on top of 206,000 of the wooden stools that were recalled less than three weeks ago. Some of the wooden stools have been falling apart under the weight of the user, reports the CPSC....

What happened last night on “How To Get Away With Murder”? Before we get to our list of the Top 5 legal inaccuracies in Episode 5, “We’re Not Friends,” here’s a super-concise, tweetable recap: #HTGAWM in 140 Characters: Son kills DV cop dad. Jury selection, then tampering, then nullification. Annalise confronts husband; did he kill Lila? The wallpaper! As with many courtroom procedurals, this episode gets some of those procedures wrong:...

Just when you thought that Charlie Sheen was the only one in Two and A Half Men that pops up in the news, his co-star steals some of the limelight. According to CBS News, Jon Cryer is claiming that he has been on the receiving end of some death threats. The death threats were phoned to the set of his television show and left him fearing for his life. The worst part?...

A Texas father beat and killed a man allegedly caught trying to sexually assault his 4-year-old daughter – a killing that may be justified under a Texas statute similar to Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. The killing and alleged assault happened Saturday in rural Shiner, Texas, east of San Antonio. The 4-year-old girl remained in her home while other relatives tended to horses, CNN reports. When the girl’s father returned to the house, he allegedly caught his daughter being sexually assaulted by a 47-year-old acquaintance, the sheriff said....

Are the days of flogging back? A Montana state lawmaker wants criminals to be given a choice: Serve jail time, or accept corporal punishment instead. State Rep. Jerry O’Neil, a Republican, wants that option for all misdemeanor and felony convictions in Montana. The exact type of corporal punishment isn’t spelled out in the bill. But what it does say is that corporal punishment will be “the infliction of physical pain on a defendant to carry out the sentence negotiated between the judge and the defendant....

Drunken driving suspects don’t always argue “I wasn’t drunk” or “I wasn’t driving.” Sometimes, they get a little more creative with their DUI defense theory. Of course, defense strategy is something that you should discuss with your attorney, and if you’re desperate enough to try one of these, you need an attorney, so consider this helpful information – not legal advice. Here they are, from plausible to utterly nuts: This isn’t a rare approach – it just rarely works....

In an extortion trial, the allegations are virtually guaranteed to be ugly, but the ugly in the Alison Coss v. John Stamos trial has a wide reach. The trial, getting underway this week, pits allegations that Coss and fellow defendant, Scott Sippola, tried to extort $680,000 from Stamos by threatening to sell pictures of him with strippers and cocaine to the tabloids. Coss, on her side, implicates Stamos in an (or an attempted) sexual relationship with her in 2004 when she was a high school student and underage....

A federal judge in San Jose, California heard arguments today about the constitutionality of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (18 U.S.C. § 413), a law used to prosecute violent acts of anti-animal research activists. The defendants were indicted in March 2009 on charges alleging that they conspired to threaten, harass, and intimidate bio-medical researchers at their homes near Berkeley and Santa Cruz, and at animal research facilities on the University of California at Santa Cruz campus....

July Fourth has come and gone and you likely ate your fair share of barbecue. While there may be nothing quite like outdoor barbecue on a hot summer day, you may have also heard of some of the food dangers associated with eating barbecue. Several years ago, scientists raised the alarm that eating burned and charred food may lead to increased cancer risk. Additionally, eating a lot of burgers and other red meat just isn’t good for you....

There’s no denying college and graduate school can be an intensely stressful experience at times. Between exams, papers, projects, and just fitting in, it’s a lot for students to handle, especially if mixed with other mental health issues. And in tragic cases, these can be so great the individual turns to suicide. Of course, after such a devastating event, many wonder why it happened or how it could have been prevented....

When it comes to investigating allegations of criminal sexting, police and prosecutors are increasingly taking a hard line. Sexting involving minors can result in felony child pornography charges, and even sexting between adults is costing jobs and leading to harassment lawsuits. These serious consequences are often matched by equally serious investigations which can be invasive, time-consuming, and potentially incriminating. Here are three things you can expect from a criminal sexting investigation:...