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Man charged in knifings at moonshine victim's wake
Headline Legal News |
2009/01/25 14:26
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| A parolee has been ordered to stand trial on charges of stabbing two men at a funeral wake for a man poisoned by moonshine. Dennis Jerome Foust of Montague faces trial in Oceana County Circuit Court on two counts of felonious assault and a misdemeanor count of domestic violence. The 33-year-old also is charged as a habitual offender, which could result in a longer prison sentence if he is convicted. Police say Foust and his wife fought Jan. 9 during the wake for Shawn Davila, who died on New Year's Day from methanol alcohol poisoning. Two men were stabbed after intervening in the fight. They were treated and released. |
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Court sides with police officers in search case
Legal Business |
2009/01/22 14:26
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| The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police officers in Utah who searched a suspect's home without a warrant cannot be sued for violating his constitutional rights. In ruling unanimously for five officers attached to the Central Utah Narcotics Task Force, the court also abandoned a rigid, two-step test that it adopted in 2001 to guide judges in assessing alleged violations of constitutional rights. Trial and appellate judges "should be permitted to exercise their sound discretion" in evaluating such claims, Justice Samuel Alito said in his opinion for the court. Under the 2001 ruling, courts first had to determine whether an action amounts to a violation of a constitutional right and then decide whether the public official, often a police officer, should be immune from the civil lawsuit. Officials can't be held liable in situations where it is not clearly established that their actions violated someone's constitutional rights. The case grew out of a search of the home of Afton Callahan of Millard County, Utah, in 2002. An informant contacted police to tell them he had arranged to purchase drugs from Callahan at Callahan's trailer home. |
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Guilty Pleas in U.S. Death Plot
Court Watch |
2009/01/20 09:20
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Two cousins from Chicago pleaded guilty in Toledo, Ohio Federal Court for their roles in a plot to recruit and train people to kill U.S. soldiers. Zubair Ahmed and Khaleel Ahmed face up to 15 years in prison after admitting they conspired to provide material support to terrorists.
Federal prosecutors say the two cousins were recruited by three Toledo men who were organizing the plot, and that the Ahmeds were training and planning to go overseas to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. The three organizers have already been convicted and are awaiting sentencing, The Associated Press reported.
Both Ahmeds pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information. They were arrested in February 2007. |
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For Sale: Unibomber's Property
Topics in Legal News |
2009/01/12 09:47
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The 9th Circuit upheld a plan to sell or disposal of the Unabomber's personal items - including notes, books, guns and bomb-making materials and instructions - that were seized during his 1996 arrest.
Theodore Kaczynski, the infamous "Unabomber," claimed the plan restricts his freedom of expression and impermissibly allows his victims to vie for any profits from the auction of his goods. He also contested a provision that calls for the destruction of his bomb-making materials instead of returning them to his designee.
He tried to reclaim his property in 2003, but the district court said the government had a "superior ownership interest" in the Unabomber's property. It also determined that his belongings were essentially worthless, as they had to be valued before he gained criminal notoriety in order to keep him from profiting from his crimes.
Kaczynski is serving four consecutive life sentences plus 30 years for a series of mail bombings that killed three people and injured nine others.
In 2005, the 9th Circuit held that the government has an ownership claim in Kaczynski's stuff, but only "if that property is needed to satisfy the terms of the restitution order."
The items aren't worthless, the court noted on appeal, if their sale helps fulfill the $15 million restitution order.
The court said the plan does not violate the First Amendment, because Kaczynski would receive a full set of legible copies before anything was sold.
Kaczynski argued that the originals were more valuable, but offered "no explanation as to how his right to free speech or freedom of expression is impinged by their sale," Judge Hawkins wrote. |
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John Q. Kelly on Natalee Holloway Case - Fox News
Headline Legal News |
2009/01/05 14:18
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Natalie Holloway Attorney John Q. Kelly
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And, finally, the Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos, responds. John Q. Kelly, the Holloway family attorney, has been trying to get Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos on the phone. Mos did leave him a rather nasty voicemail the other day. But now Hans Mos has responded to a letter from Kelly.
So what did Mos say in this response? John Q. Kelly joins us. John, what did he say?
JOHN Q. KELLY, HOLLOWAY FAMILY ATTORNEY: It's basically two-fold. One is that Joran [van der Sloot] has given different versions of the same event, so they can't be bothered with it.
And, two, they have no interest in any evidence or information that might assist him at this point.
VAN SUSTEREN: That is cute. The key is if you want to commit a crime, go to Aruba and tell three stories, because they will not investigate you and they won't look to corroborate. That's lesson number one. That's good advice.
You ask to have him arrested. What happens about that?
KELLY: He said we have no basis for it. This is the first time we have had any information that has been corroborated. He says he father was engaged in a cover-up, and it turns out that the chief of police and Paulus [van der Sloot], it has been confirmed that they hindered the prosecution. We have taped conversations that confirmed the boys talking about hoping that Natalee, or fearing that she may be alive. There are cell phone pings as to locations of Joran down by the fisherman's hut. There are all kinds of things independently that confirm what Joran is saying now, and they just won't listen.
VAN SUSTEREN: I know that he doesn't like us here at "On the Record." And I will make this promise tonight-we will stop being the monkey on his back if he does any investigation at all.
But I can tell you one thing. We have learned new information that a member of the Dutch parliament, Hero Brinkman, he is about to raise holy hell on Hans Mos. He is going down to Aruba in early January.
And if Hans Mos does not like us, wait until he gets a hold of this member of parliament, because he says that Aruba is "corrupt as hell" I think were his words, not mine.
KELLY: Greta, can I take you to the woodshed on one thing? I think people have to understand that even thought it was five months before your aired your interview with Joran that Hans Mos was made aware of it and the substance of it in great detail almost immediately, and he had no interest in following.
Read the entire interview at Fox News - Click Here |
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