Archive for the ‘Law’ Category

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CleCon!

Tuesday, September 6th, 2022

That’s Cleveland content, for my peeps in Ohio.

Daniel Stashower (The Beautiful Cigar Girl) has a new book out: American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper, about the Cleveland Torso Murders.

He also has a good piece up at CrimeReads tied to the book and his family history in Cleveland. I had no idea he was a good Cleveland boy.

I’m probably going to wait to buy this one, but that has nothing to do with Mr. Stashower, and more to do with the fact that I’ve read a fair amount about Eliot Ness and the hunt for the torso murderer. That includes a good write-up in Bill James’s Popular Crime and (I think) the original version of In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland’s Torso Murders.

On the lighter side, Field of Schemes has a good piece up on the quest for a new Browns stadium:

You have time and resources to call a ton of people and interview them for a story about the local sports team’s potential $1 billion-plus stadium ask, and to talk to at least one of them for 25 minutes according to the story, and you choose to call: Three former city officials, one of whom has also worked for the Browns; three broadcasters who work for the Browns or a fellow Cleveland sports team; two real estate brokers; and two restaurateurs.

As I’ve said before, FoS runs a little left for my taste, but the one thing we agree on is opposition to giving money to sports teams.

(For the record, my Cleveland relatives who are sports fans informed me that they have given up on the Browns this year, as they are completely disgusted with their handling of the Watson debacle. I think this also means I can make jokes about the Browns without feeling guilty.)

This is stretching the definition of “Cleveland content” a little bit: Cedar Point is about an hour from Cleveland, but that’s close enough that a good number of Clevelanders go there. Anyway, Cedar Point is shutting down the Top Thrill Dragster coaster.

The Top Thrill Dragster gained fame for reaching speeds of 120 mph in just 3.8 seconds…
At the time it opened in 2003, it was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. But it was later eclipsed by the Kingda Ka ride at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.

The coaster had been closed since last August, after a woman was badly injured. Top Thrill Dragster entry on Wikipedia.

Posted in Books, History, Law, NFL, Sports | 3 Comments »

Well. Well well well. Well.

Tuesday, September 6th, 2022

A quick update, which I just found on the “Task and Purpose” website.

Remember “Fat Leonard”? Of the Navy contracting scandal? That guy?

Leonard Glenn Francis is now on the run.

Francis, who had been under house arrest in San Diego went missing on Sunday after cutting off his monitoring ankle bracelet, the San Diego Tribune first revealed. Francis’ neighbors had noticed moving trucks going in and out of his home recently.
“He was planning this out, that’s for sure,” Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Omar Castillo told the newspaper.

And for those of you who haven’t been keeping track at home:

Former Navy Capt. Daniel Dusek was sentenced in March 2016 to 46 months in prison after admitting to prosecutors that he had redirected the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other ships to a port terminal owned by Francis, according to the Justice Department.
Francis and his company Glenn Defense Marine Asia agreed to repay $35 million that they had overcharged the Navy for fuel, tugboat services, sewage disposal, and other services.
In June, a federal jury convicted four former Navy officers of receiving bribes from Francis, and jurors could not reach a verdict on a fifth former leader, retired Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless. Additionally, 29 other people, including Francis, have pleaded guilty in connection with the scandal.

Posted in Bagatelle, Law | 1 Comment »

Barbecue Law!

Wednesday, August 24th, 2022

La Barbecue is a popular Austin joint. It is in the Texas Monthly Top 50, though not in the Top 10.

The owner and manager of La Barbecue have been criminally indicted.

[Leanne] Mueller and [Allison] Clem are each charged with two counts of fraudulent securing of document execution.

What does that mean? Here’s how the Statesman explains it. La Barbecue didn’t have worker’s comp insurance, and hadn’t had it since November of 2014. Sometime in July of 2016, one of their employees was hurt “while operating a piece of kitchen equipment”. It sounds like the injuries were pretty serious: I’ll get into that in a minute.

Four days later, Clem contacted Paychex Insurance to get workers’ compensation coverage, something the restaurant had been without since November 2014.
Clem did not disclose her employee’s injuries to the agent but asked that the new policy be backdated to July 1, 2016, three weeks before the employee was hurt, the Texas Department of Insurance reported.

This kind of strikes me as equivalent to being in a car accident, then calling your insurance agent to get backdated coverage. I would call this “insurance fraud”. But: I am not a lawyer.

“It is perfectly legal to obtain a backdated policy in Texas,” said the women’s attorney, Brian Roark.

Which may be true. But it is legal to obtain a backdated policy, then make a claim against that policy for an accident that happened while coverage was not in place?

Mueller then submitted a signed application for coverage, claiming the business had no previous losses, and the policy was approved by Travelers Casualty Insurance Co. of America, the department said.

According to the article, Travelers paid out “$350,000 in medical and indemnity benefits”. In addition, “The insurance company is also responsible for lifetime care of the injured employee.”

“The insurance company determined early on that they didn’t believe they should have to pay for the claim, yet continued to pay for it anyway,” Roark said. “Regardless of the insurance company’s determination, La Barbecue, Leanne Mueller and Allison Clem believed they were acting in good faith at all times when they signed the application that had been provided to them by the insurance agent. All the monies paid for the employee were paid to the employee or directly for his medical expenses and not to La Barbecue, Leanne Mueller or Allison Clem. We believe once a jury hears the facts, that La Barbecue, Leanne Mueller and Allison Clem will be exonerated.”

If they are convicted, supposedly the two can be made to pay restitution “up to double the amount Travelers already paid to the injured worker in benefits”.

I’d hate to lose a good barbecue joint (though I’ve never had a chance to eat at La Barbecue). But I think this goes to show at least one thing: it’s just ignorant not to have worker’s comp insurance.

(More from eater.com. Crossposted to The Logbook of the Saturday Dining Conspiracy.)

Posted in Beef, Food, Law | 1 Comment »

Brief belated historical note.

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022

I had a day off yesterday and did a lot of running around, so I missed this:

50 years ago yesterday, on August 22, 1972, John Wojtowicz, Robert Westenberg, and Salvatore Naturile tried to hold up a branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank in Brooklyn.

Things did not go well. They expected to take between $150,000 and $200,000, but when they got to the bank, an armored truck had taken most of the money away. They got a total of $29,000 and tried to get away: Westenberg escaped, but Wojtowicz and Naturile didn’t manage to get away before the police showed up. The attempted bank robbery turned into a hostage situation…

…and if all this sounds familiar, yes, this was the famous “Dog Day Afternoon” robbery.

50th anniversary retrospective from the NYT.

Posted in History, Law, Movies | Comments Closed

Quick legal note.

Friday, August 19th, 2022

Fotios Geas, Paul J. DeCologero and Sean McKinnon have been charged with crimes related to the murder of Whitey Bulger.

They’ve all been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Mr. Geas, 55, who is known as “Freddy,” and Mr. DeCologero, 48, known as “Pauly,” were also charged with aiding and abetting first-degree murder, as well as assault resulting in serious bodily injury. Mr. Geas faces an additional charge for murder by a federal inmate serving a life sentence.
Mr. McKinnon, 36, who was on federal supervised release when he was indicted and arrested in Florida on Thursday, faces a separate charge of making false statements to a federal agent.

Posted in Law | 1 Comment »

Quick flaming hyena update.

Thursday, August 18th, 2022

By way of Lawrence: remember the police chief and his Earth, Wind, and Fire cover band?

15 years in prison.

Posted in Law, Music, Politics | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#96 in a series)

Tuesday, August 9th, 2022

This is a bit of a change-up pitch.

RBB is a German public broadcaster. More specifically:

RBB is one of the nine regional public broadcasters that make up ARD, Germany’s joint pubweb network which, with an annual budget of $7 billion (€6.9 billion) and more than 22 thousand employees, is the world’s largest public broadcaster. RBB is also one of the main sponsors of the Berlin International Film Festival.

Patricia Schlesinger was the director of RBB. She resigned on Sunday, as did Wolf-Dieter Wolf, chairman of the board.

On Monday, Berlin’s public prosecutor confirmed it had opened an investigation into accusations Schlesinger embezzled RBB funds to support her lifestyle, including getting the network to pay for lavish dinners at her home and financing her private use of a luxury company car.

…

Schlesinger, who was on a $308,000 (€307,000) annual salary at RBB, is accused of using the German public broadcaster to bankroll a lavish lifestyle for herself and her ex-husband, the Spiegel journalist Gerhard Spörl. Among the allegations, many of which have been revealed in explicit detail in the German media, are that Schlesinger regularly hosted exclusive dinners at her home for prominent guests, getting RBB to pick up the bill, and that she pushed through a $662,000 (€650,000) luxury renovation of her office – all while cutting jobs and programming costs at her network.

Wolf-Dieter Wolf has been “linked with some of the accusations leveled at Schlesinger”, whatever that means.

Posted in Law, Politics, TV | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: August 6, 2022.

Saturday, August 6th, 2022

Today’s kind of a run-down of people who aren’t as famous as I usually cover, but whose obits I find interesting in one way or another.

Dee Hock. He’s generally credited with having built the consortium that became Visa into what it is today.

As chief executive, he oversaw the development of the first electronic authorization system and the first interbank electronic clearing and settlement system. Banks would issue the cards, not Visa, and they were mandated to add the magnetic stripe to their cards.

Melissa Bank. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing was a big deal (I never read it). Her follow-up book seems to have been well regarded, but didn’t do as well, and she was working on a third book when she died at 61.

Mary Ellin Barrett. She was one of Irving Berlin’s daughters, and wrote a book about her father (Irving Berlin: A Daughter’s Memoir).

In it, Ms. Barrett offered a new portrait of her father: droll, self-effacing, with an unspoken perfectionism that would doom him to bitterness in old age but that for four decades of maturity pushed him to dazzling artistic achievements, along with attentiveness to his family.
That has become a definitive insider’s view of Irving Berlin. The Times critic Stephen Holden credited Ms. Barrett with the ability to balance affection for her father with awareness of his flaws, and he called her book a “touching, wise, gracefully written memoir.”

Albert Woodfox, who spent 42 years in solitary at Angola.

Mr. Woodfox was placed in solitary confinement in 1972 after being accused of murdering Brent Miller, a 23-year-old corrections officer. A tangled legal ordeal ensued, including two convictions, both overturned, and three indictments stretching over four decades.
The case struck most commentators as problematic. No forensic evidence linked Mr. Woodfox to the crime, so the authorities’ argument depended on witnesses, who over time were discredited or proved unreliable.

Sid Jacobson, comics writer.

Posted in Books, Law, Music, Obits | 1 Comment »

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#94 and #95 in a series)

Thursday, August 4th, 2022

Wanda Vázquez, the former governor of Puerto Rico, has been charged with taking bribes from a donor to her campaign.

The donor, Julio M. Herrera Velutini — a Venezuelan banker who has been mired in regulatory problems in Puerto Rico — was also charged. Mr. Herrera, 50, owns Bancrédito, an international bank that faced scrutiny from Puerto Rico regulators over suspicious banking transactions.
According to the Department of Justice, Mr. Herrera wanted the island’s top banking regulator to be replaced, and in return offered to pay $300,000 to political consultants working on the governor’s campaign. Ms. Vázquez, who was facing re-election at the time, agreed to the plan, W. Stephen Muldrow, the United States Attorney for Puerto Rico, said, adding that Mr. Herrera then formed a political action committee for Ms. Vázquez.
The grand jury’s 42-page indictment details meetings and text messages purported to show the quid-pro-quo nature of the arrangement. The governor went through with her end of the bargain, forcing the incumbent banking commissioner to step down and installing Mr. Herrera’s choice as the new commissioner, according to the indictment.

It gets a little better: the bribe money was funneled through an ex-FBI agent.

Mr. Rossini, 60, is a former F.B.I. supervisory agent who, before the Sept. 11 attacks, was assigned to a C.I.A. task force investigating Al Qaeda, but was criminally charged for illegally running unauthorized searches on a government computer. After pleading guilty to those charges, he paid a fine and served community service and a year of probation.

Ms. Vázquez became governor in 2019, after the previous governor resigned. She lost the primary election in 2020. The NYT describes her as a pro-statehood Republican.

The former governor, the banker and the former federal agent were each charged with conspiracy, federal programs bribery, and honest services wire fraud, and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted…

Do I need to say it?

In other news, Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren got booted out of office. No, he didn’t lose an election. No, he hasn’t been indicted.

Ron DeSantis fired his arse for not enforcing state law.

At a news conference flanked by police from around Tampa Bay, DeSantis said Warren has “put himself publicly above the law” by signing letters saying he would not enforce laws prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors or laws limiting abortion.

…

DeSantis’ order does not cite examples of Warren not prosecuting individual cases. The state has no laws on gender-affirming care that Warren could refuse to prosecute. Instead, DeSantis’ order points to Warren’s public comments on abortion, transgender issues and office policies Warren has adopted.

But:

…Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said at Thursday’s news conference that police have had long-running frustrations with Warren for not prosecuting particular cases.
“I continue to work with my law enforcement counterparts who privately are frustrated with the state attorney, who seems intently focused on empathy for criminals and less interested in pursuing justice for crime victims,” Chronister said.

In addition to the abortion and transgender stuff, the complaints include:

▪ Warren enacting a policy not to prosecute “certain criminal violations, including trespassing at a business location, disorderly conduct, disorderly intoxication, and prostitution.”
▪ Warren enacting a policy “against prosecuting crimes where the initial encounter between law enforcement and the defendant results from a non-criminal violation in connection with riding a bicycle or a pedestrian violation.”

Bonus: Scott Israel is apparently working as a chief of police in Opa-locka, Florida. That’s Scott Israel, former Broward County Sheriff, who got booted from office by Ron DeSantis after the Parkland shooting. Did not know this.

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: August 4, 2022.

Thursday, August 4th, 2022

Private First Class Robert E. Simanek (USMC – ret.). Alt link.

Private Simanek received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Korean War. From his Medal of Honor citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Company F, in action against enemy aggressor forces. While accompanying a patrol en route to occupy a combat outpost forward of friendly lines, Private First Class Simanek exhibited a high degree of courage and a resolute spirit of self-sacrifice in protecting the lives of his fellow marines. With his unit ambushed by an intense concentration of enemy mortar and small-arms fire, and suffering heavy casualties, he was forced to seek cover with the remaining members of the patrol in a nearby trench line. Determined to save his comrades when a hostile grenade was hurled into their midst, he unhesitatingly threw himself on the deadly missile absorbing the shattering violence of the exploding charge in his body and shielding his fellow marines from serious injury or death. Gravely wounded as a result of his heroic action, Private First Class Simanek, by his daring initiative and great personal valor in the face of almost certain death, served to inspire all who observed him and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

I kind of liked this quote:

“I had been to the outpost before and thought of it as a somewhat vacation because no action had ever been there all the time I’d been on that particular part of the line,” Mr. Simanek recalled in an interview with the government website Department of Defense News in 2020. “So I took an old Reader’s Digest and a can of precious beer in my big back pocket and thought I was really going to have a relaxing situation. It didn’t turn out that way.”

He was 92. His death (according to the NYT) leaves two surviving MoH recipients from the Korean War: Hiroshi Miyamura, who is 96, and Ralph Puckett Jr., who is 95.

Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Indiana) was killed in a car accident yesterday. Two of her aides, district director Zachery Potts and communications director Emma Thomson, were also killed.

Lawrence sent over an obit for British actor John Steiner, who died in a car accident on Sunday. Credits include “Caligula”, “Deported Women of the SS Special Section”, and “The .44 Specialist”.

Richard Tait, co-inventor of “Cranium”. He was 58, and died of COVID complications.

Dallas Edeburn, deputy with the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota. He was found dead in his car after his shift. In March of 2021, he was in a serious accident when his patrol car was hit by a stolen car fleeing from the police. Other officers pulled him from his burning car, and he sustained pretty serious injuries. It isn’t clear if his death is related to the previous incident.

Johnny Famechon, former featherweight champion of the world.

The Australian boxer’s most memorable world title victory was his decision win against Cuban Jose Legra for the WBC title at London’s Albert Hall in 1969. Famechon boxed professionally for more than 20 years and had a record of 56 wins (20 by knockout), five losses and six draws.

Posted in Cops, Law, Movies, Obits, Politics | 4 Comments »

Because this is hookersnblow.com, too.

Thursday, July 21st, 2022

Not news: Air Force scientist persuades one of his contractors to hire a woman he knows.

Also not news: contractor has some concerns about his new hire, like her inability to “use basic word processing and document creation software” and “formulate coherent inter-office emails”.

News: she was actually a hooker.

News: not only was she involved professionally with the scientist, but she was also plying her trade with other scientists at Wright-Patterson AFB.

News: when the contractor told the scientist this was unethical, the scientist “stated he would come to Building 5 with one of his many guns to ‘end it all’”.

News:

When AFOSI investigators raided [the scientist’s] office, they seized electronic devices along with a box of condoms, women’s underwear and an empty bottle of Viagra.
A forensic review of his phone found texts between [the scientist] and 27 sex workers in different cities, many of whom were “foreign nationals from countries considered US National Security concerns,” the warrant said.

News: the scientist passed away in September of last year from “unspecified causes”.

The warrant, unsealed on Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, seeks access to [the scientist’s] and the woman’s email accounts for evidence of false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims, embezzlement/misuse of government property, extortion of officers or employees of the United States, ethnic intimidation, and aggravated menacing, the Daily Beast reported.
She is reportedly being investigated on charges of prostitution near military and naval establishments, and false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims.

That’s quite a catalog of crimes, some of which I’m unfamiliar with. “ethnic intimidation”? “aggravated menacing”? Is there non-aggravated menacing?

Posted in Law, Stupid | 1 Comment »

Murdaugh watch.

Thursday, July 21st, 2022

Russell Laffitte has been charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, and the ever popular “conspiracy”.

Mr. Laffitte used to be the CEO of Palmetto State Bank: he got canned back in January.

The whole thing centers around two sisters who got a settlement back in 2005. Mr. Laffitte was their conservator, Alex Murdaugh was their lawyer, and…

Laffitte allegedly schemed with the disgraced lawyer to pillage the girls’ accounts and steal $355,000 for himself and $990,000 for Murdaugh, court documents said.
He also misused bank funds to give Murdaugh an unauthorized $750,000 loan for “beach house renovations and expenses” and sent $680,000 of the bank’s money to pay back a debt Murdaugh had illegally transferred to him, according to the grand jury.
In addition, Laffitte earned nearly $400,000 for supposedly safeguarding the Plyler sister’s money, according to the document. He had allegedly been in cahoots with Murdaugh to steal from the girls since 2011 and faces 30 years in prison if convicted.

(Sorry about using the NYPost for this, but I actually could not find coverage of this story in the South Carolina newspapers.)

Posted in Law, Murdaugh | Comments Closed

A horse is a horse, of course, of course…

Tuesday, July 19th, 2022

…and no one should flee from a horse, of course,
Especially (of course) if the NYPD owns that horse.

Somebody in the thread responded with a still, but what the heck, let’s go to the ‘Tube:

(Jessica Walter! Damn!)

Posted in 1970s, Horses, Law, NYPD, TV | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: July 18, 2022.

Monday, July 18th, 2022

It was a bad weekend for SF writers. Lawrence sent me two obits:

Herbert W. Franke.

…not only studied physics, mathematics, chemistry, psychology and philosophy at the University of Vienna, was the author of numerous science fiction novels and an avid cave explorer.

Eric Flint. I’ve heard good things about his “1632” books, but haven’t read any of them.

Claes Oldenburg, visual artist. His thing seems to have been making huge versions of everyday objects.

One of his most famous installations, erected in 1976 — the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence — is “Clothespin,” a 45-foot-high, 10-ton black steel sculpture of precisely what the title indicates, complete with a metal spring that appropriately evokes the number 76. The work stands in stark contrast to conventional public sculpture, which Mr. Oldenburg, impersonating a municipal official, said was supposed to involve “bulls and Greeks and lots of nekkid broads.”

Gerald Shargel, criminal lawyer. He defended a lot of Mob guys, including Gotti.

The lanky, bearded lawyer got so close to some Mafia clients that a federal district judge, I. Leo Glasser, removed him from representing one mob figure after prosecutors accused him of serving as “house counsel” to an organized crime family, an allegation he denied.
Mr. Gotti himself also got upset with Mr. Shargel, for being too talkative to reporters. The mob boss was caught on a wiretap warning his lawyer: “I’m gonna show him a better way than the elevator out of his office” (which was on the 32nd floor).

…

When one witness explained that the accessories required for a mob induction included not only a needle to draw blood for the ritual oath, but a bottle of alcohol to sterilize the pinprick, Mr. Shargel asked mordantly: “In other words you were going to get into the Mafia, but you didn’t want to infect your finger?”

Lily Safra. I probably wouldn’t have said anything about this at all, were it not for all the stuff in the obit about the death of husband number four, Edmond J. Safra. (Archive.is link for those who can’t read it otherwise.)

Posted in Art, Books, History, Law, Obits | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#93 in a series)

Thursday, July 14th, 2022

Jason Lary, the ex-mayor of Stonecrest, Georgia, was sentenced to 57 months in prison yesterday.

Former Mayor Lary pled guitly in January to wire fraud, conspiracy, and theft of federal funds. He took COVID relief funds granted by DeKalb County and used them to pay off his mortgage and back taxes. Some of the money also went to pay his bookkeeper’s son’s college expenses. (She’s also pled guilty to conspiracy, but hasn’t been sentenced yet.)

In addition to the prison time, Mr. Lary will have to pay $120,000 in restitution, and serve three years of supervised release.

Apologies for linking to the NYT on this. I can’t get the story from the Atlanta paper to go through archive.is, and the AJC is very obnoxious about subscribing/adblocking.

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Closed

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