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Del. pediatrician gets life for abusing patients
Court Watch |
2011/08/26 10:15
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A Delaware pediatrician convicted of sexually abusing scores of young patients over more than a decade was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Earl Bradley showed no emotion as a judge sentenced him to 14 life sentences for 14 counts of first-degree rape. Bradley was also sentenced to 165 years for multiple counts of assault and continuous sexual exploitation of a child.
Bradley was arrested in Dec. 2009 after a 2-year-old girl complained to her mother after an office visit that the doctor had hurt her.
Investigators searched his office complex, decorated with Disney characters and miniature amusement park rides, and seized dozens of homemade videos.
Bradley's public defenders presented no defense at his trial, opting instead for a swift verdict so they could more quickly appeal the judge's decision to allow the videos as evidence. The defense contends they were improperly seized by investigators acting outside the scope of their search warrant.
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RI 'Survivor' winner won't get free lawyer
Headline Legal News |
2011/08/26 10:14
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A Rhode Island judge is refusing to grant free legal counsel to help the winner of the first season of the CBS reality show "Survivor" appeal a nine-month prison sentence.
Judge William Smith on Thursday rejected 50-year-old Richard Hatch's request for a court-appointed attorney to help him fight the sentence handed down in March for violating the terms of his supervised release by failing to settle his tax bill.
Hatch, of Newport, spent more than three years in prison for not paying taxes on his $1 million "Survivor" winnings. He was released in 2009 and ordered to refile his 2000 and 2001 taxes and pay what he owed. Smith ruled he never did and returned him to prison.
Hatch, who claims he is "destitute," is scheduled to be released in December.
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No choking charges for Wis. Supreme Court justice
Legal Business |
2011/08/26 10:14
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A conservative Wisconsin state Supreme Court justice who staved off an unusually intense campaign to replace him this summer will not face criminal charges over allegations that he tried to choke a liberal colleague, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett, a special prosecutor in the case, said that after reviewing investigators' reports, she decided there's no basis to file charges against either Justice David Prosser or Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, who accused Prosser of choking her.
Barrett, who is a Republican, told The Associated Press that the accounts of the other justices who were present when the alleged altercation occurred varied widely, however she declined to elaborate.
"I believe a complete review of the report suggests there is a difference of opinion. There are a variety of statements about what occurred ... the totality of what did happen does not support criminal charges against either Justice Bradley or Justice Prosser," Barrett said.
Walsh Bradley accused Prosser of choking her in June while the justices were deliberating the merits of a lawsuit challenging Republican Gov. Scott Walker's contentious law stripping public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights. Walsh Bradley, 61, is seen as part of the court's three-justice liberal minority, while Prosser, a 68-year-old former Republican legislator, is considered part of the four-justice conservative majority. The factions have been feuding for years.
The court delivered its verdict the day after the alleged incident, ruling 4-3 to uphold the law and allowing it to finally take effect. As expected, Prosser voted with the majority.
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Judge to hear arguments over Loughner's medication
Press Release |
2011/08/25 10:15
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Attorneys for the Tucson shooting rampage suspect are making another attempt to stop the forced medication of their client at the Missouri prison facility where mental health experts are trying to make him psychologically fit to stand trial.
A federal judge will hear arguments Friday over a request by Jared Lee Loughner's defense team to halt the pychotropic drug medications.
U.S. District Judge Larry Burns rejected a similar request by Loughner's attorneys in late June. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeal halted the medication but later allowed it to resume after prison officials determined Loughner's outbursts there posed a danger.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
He has been at a federal prison facility in Springfield, Mo., since late May after mental health experts determined he suffers from schizophrenia. A judge ruled him mentally unfit to stand trial.
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Motion to bar Montana, Idaho wolf hunts denied
Court News |
2011/08/24 10:15
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A federal appeals court on Thursday denied a request by environmental groups to halt wolf hunts that are scheduled to begin next week in Idaho and Montana.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and other groups. The groups were seeking to cancel the hunts while the court considers a challenge to congressional action in April that stripped wolves of federal protections in Montana and Idaho, and in parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula reluctantly upheld a budget rider that was inserted by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. It marked the first time since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 that Congress forcibly removed protections from a plant or animal.
Molloy ruled that the way Congress went about removing endangered species protections from the Northern Rockies gray wolf undermined the rule of law but did not violate the Constitution. Meanwhile, the environmental groups argued Congress' actions were unconstitutional because they violated the principle of separation of powers.
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