…where they serve churrasco with arroz de coco,
C-O-C-O, coco.
He walked up to me and he asked me to vote,
I asked him his name and in a crooked voice he said Lula,
L-U-L-A, Lula.
La-la-la-la Lula.
Archive for the ‘Law’ Category
I met him in a place down in São Paulo…
Thursday, April 5th, 2018When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have…
Thursday, March 29th, 2018…water slides.
This is one of those things that I intended to note earlier, but then I got busy and it got past me.
Schlitterbahn and Tyler Miles (the local operations manager for their Kansas City park) were indicted last week on involuntary manslaughter charges. This is related to the death of a ten-year-old boy who was decapitated on the Verrückt waterslide.
Texas Monthly online has a pretty good summary of the indictment and what led up to it. The spin here, based on the criminal indictment, is that these people supposedly had no idea what they were doing.
Why was speed “100% required”? Allegedly, Henry was trying to impress reality show producers.
…
Kind of burying the lede, and something I didn’t see reported as widely as the first indictment: Henry has also been arrested, and is charged with “murder, twelve counts of aggravated battery, and five counts of aggravated endangerment of a child”. The indictment against Henry hadn’t been released when the TM article hit the web, so indictment details are scanty.
It is worth remembering that most of what’s in the TM story is the prosecution’s case from the indictment, that Henry, Miles and Schlitterbahn have a different story that their lawyers will be presenting at trial, and that all parties should, of course, be presumed innocent.
Obit watch: March 21, 2018.
Wednesday, March 21st, 2018Nelda Wells Spears, former Travis County tax assessor-collector. I remember having to write checks to her, back in the pre-Internet days…
Earl Cooley, prominent Austin SF fan, influential early BBS guy, and a personal friend.
The Mad Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight. They haven’t released a name yet, but even if they did, I wouldn’t give him the publicity.
Memo from the police beat.
Saturday, March 17th, 2018I’m a couple of days behind on these: I plead just sheer being busy.
Three APD officers have been indicted by a grand jury. Two of the officers were involved in a single indicident, and the third in a seperate one.
In the first incident, the two officers responded to a shooting downtown. A group of people were around a guy who’d been shot. Officers ordered everybody onto the ground. One guy walked away and ended up getting Tasered.
The third case involves a prostitution arrest: details on both of these cases are kind of vague. But:
Unrelated, because this took place in Williamson County: a former deputy with the WillCo sheriff’s department has been charged with punching a 12-year-old girl in the face.
…
…
He’d previously been charged with resisting arrest and public intoxication. Now he gets to add “injury to a child” to his collection.
Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody said the unusual nature of the arrest led him to fire Danford last week.
“When you reflect negatively on our department, there’s a price to pay,” he said.
Random notes, mostly legal, March 15, 2018.
Thursday, March 15th, 2018When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have samurai swords.
In the immortal words of Hank Williams, Jr., it’s just a family tradition.
Interesting #1:
Exonerations caused by official misconduct: 84
Well over half of the people exonerated last year were initially convicted because of official misconduct, such as officers threatening witnesses, analysts falsifying tests or officials withholding evidence that would have cleared the defendant.
No-crime exonerations: 66
In just under half of the exonerations last year, defendants were wrongfully convicted in cases in which no crime was committed. This included more than a dozen drug possession cases, 11 child sex abuse cases and nine murder cases.
On a totally unrelated note, the state of Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains and it’s hard to get drugs for lethal injections, has decided to start using nitrogen gas instead. (Subject to judicial approval.) I’ve seen other folks call for this as being a much more painless and humane alternative to lethal injection, but OK seems to be the closest to actually doing this.
(Yes, I know: “You know what else is a painless and humane alternative to lethal injection? Not executing people.” And yes, that seems especially relevant in light of the previous item. One of these days, I will write that essay for you guys on the death penalty and my complicated feelings about it.)
Herman Bell has been granted parole. Mr. Bell, along with Anthony Bottom and Albert Washington (members of the Black Liberation Army), executed NYPD officers Joseph A. Piagentini and Waverly M. Jones on May 21, 1971.
Mr. Bell has been in prison for 47 years. Mr. Washington is still in prison. Mr. Bottom died in 2000.
Headline:
Claire Foy, Queen on ‘The Crown,’ Was Paid Less Than Her Onscreen Husband
Body:
The show’s producers have promised that, from now on, “Nobody gets paid more than the queen.” Oh, by the way: they’re also recasting the show: the queen will now be played by Olivia Colman.
You know, you would think that Sorkin and company would have worked out all the permissions issues before actually trying to stage the play…
Have I really been blogging this long?
Thursday, March 15th, 2018Folks who have been reading this blog for a long time may remember Laura Hall, or, as I like to call her, “The Happy Hacker”.
For those with poor memories or who haven’t been following along, Ms. Hall is famous for such hits as “help this guy I know cut up and dispose of his girlfriend’s body” and “turn my five year sentence into ten years because I’m such a witch“.
Ms. Hall will be released from prison today.
Even though Hall was convicted in 2007, it took five years of emotional legal wrangling for a Travis County jury to sentence her to 11 years in prison. Her sentence included 10 years for the tampering with evidence conviction and one year for a charge of hindering apprehension — both were served concurrently.
She was also allowed time served, which is why she’s being released Thursday.
She’s served “almost” eight years out of her ten year sentence.
Another one I missed.
Thursday, March 8th, 2018Seriously, for the past few days, I’ve had crud oozing out of my eyes and nose continuously. Up until today, I could just barely stand to look at a computer monitor.
But that’s a digression. Remember the Fyre Festival? Wasn’t that a hoot?
…
He told the judge, Naomi Reice Buchwald, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, that he had begun organizing the festival with good intentions but had “greatly underestimated the resources” it would take.
But that’s not fraud. Poor judgment, maybe, but not outright fraud.
Charging documents filed by prosecutors said that Mr. McFarland, 26, had provided investors with false financial reports, including one that listed millions of dollars in talent-booking revenue for Fyre Media. In reality, the documents said, the company had earned only about $57,000 in bookings in the year leading up to the festival.
Mr. McFarland was also charged with showing investors bogus financial documents to claim that he owned more stock than he actually did so that it would appear he was in a position to personally guarantee an investment. And, prosecutors said, he used inflated revenue numbers to induce a ticket vendor to pay $2 million for a block of advance tickets for future festivals.
Oh. That’s different. (And it sounds like this is just what the government claimed: we don’t know what he actually admitted to in his plea.)
My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, Ken White thanks you, and I thank you.
Flames, hyenas, etc. (#48)
Thursday, March 8th, 2018Apologies for being a little behind on these. I’ve been having some issues the past few days and am slowly getting back up to speed.
Hyena number one: Dawnna Dukes got curb-stomped in Tuesday’s primary.
Hyena number two: the mayor of Nashville resigned on Tuesday. This was part of her guilty plea to charges of felony theft.
Nashville isn’t my usual beat, but I’ve been sort of following this story from the edges. In brief: the mayor was having an affair with her “head of security”, and the felony theft charges apparently involve payments for overtime and travel expenses to her partner (who also pled guilty to felony theft charges).
…
One thing I picked up elsewhere: apparently, the plea deals include deferred adjudication. Basically, if Barry and Forrest keep their noses clean (and, I assume, make restitution), they can have the felony conviction expunged from their records.
Open question: what’s going to happen to Forrest’s pension? He retired the day the affair was announced, and was approved for $74,000 a year. But that figure was based, in part, on the overtime payments Forrest collected while he was Barry’s lover…
Edited to add: I got to wondering, and I’m sure all of you were as well. According to this article from 2015, former mayor Barry was not a member of Crooked Mayors For Disarmed Citizens. But it wasn’t for lack of trying:
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Despite the push among some mayors demanding action on guns, Barry at this point isn’t part of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
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Mayor’s office press secretary Sean Braisted said Barry has no plans to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns at this time.
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#47 in a series)
Thursday, February 22nd, 2018Very quick, because this is my CPA volunteer night and I’m down at the cop shop:
Yes. FELONY invasion of privacy. Allegedly, he took nudes of someone without consent, and then “transmitted the photo in a way that allowed it to be seen on a computer, which prosecutors said made the crime a felony rather than a misdemeanor”.
More from the Post-Dispatch:
Also: two! Two in one day!
ETA 2/23: Now that I’m in front of a real computer, it looks like a double-hyena day isn’t unheard of (April of 2016). But it is rare enough to be noteworthy.
I’m looking forward to my first triple flaming hyena day.
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#46 in a series)
Thursday, February 22nd, 2018This is how out of it I’ve been: I didn’t even know Democratic state Senator Carlos Uresti was actually on trial until Mike the Musicologist texted me the verdict. (Previously on WCD.)
And that verdict?
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
That’s “all charges”. And what were those charges again?
As to State Sen. Carlos Uresti:
Count 1, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 2, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 3, conspiracy to commit wire fraud: Guilty
Count 4, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 5, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 6, wire fraud: Guilty
Count 8, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments: Guilty
Count 11, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 20, securities fraud: Guilty
Count 21, securities fraud: Guilty
Count 22, unregistered securities broker: Guilty
As to Gary Cain:
Count 3, conspiracy to commit wire fraud: Guilty
Count 8, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments: Guilty
Count 13, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 14, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 15, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 16, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 17, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 18, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
Count 19: engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity: Guilty
…
Of course, it is highly unlikely that he’ll get 200 years in prison. My prediction: I’ll be surprised if he gets more than 10 years.
There are many beautiful words in the English language.
Tuesday, February 20th, 2018Here are four of them:
World’s Most Corrupt Police Departments.
Friday, February 16th, 2018Coming up on the Justice Network.
(Well, they need to do something, now that those jerks have dropped the midnight Sunday “Most Shocking”.)
(Seriously, Justice Network: was anyone asking for a three hour block of “Rescue 911”? And why are you also airing another three hour block of “psychic” frauds?)
(But I digress.)
I’ve written before about the criminal Philadelphia police department. Latest development:
Of course the list is secret.
As the article notes, this isn’t unheard of: Seattle is cited as an example, and I seem to recall hearing that the LA district attorney’s office had a similar list. (Edited to add: link to recent coverage of the LADA list. Additional. Denton County has a list, too.) It seems to me, though (and if there are any legal experts out there, please correct me if I’m wrong) that the places that have these lists of problem officers also have a lot of other police related issues, too.
And as a by the way, you know who created the list? Seth Williams.
(Hattip.)
I’ve been sort of negligent in covering the ongoing Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force cases. To be honest, I’ve been a little busy, things have me down, and the most recent trial got pretty widespread national coverage. (Spoiler: two detectives were convicted on Monday.)
As you would expect, now that there’s convictions, there’s also weeping and wailing from the politicians. Which usually isn’t interesting, but:
My first thought: if you disband the Baltimore PD, where is David Simon going to get material for season six of “The Wire”?
My second thought: if you were going to disband a police department for being corrupt and out of control, B’more would not be my first choice. In order, I think I’d take Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia before Charm City.
Quick update.
Thursday, February 15th, 2018I touched on the case of Hugh Barry and Deborah Danner a while back. Very briefly: Barry was a sergeant with the NYPD, he responded to a call about a mentally disturbed woman (Ms. Danner), she came at him with a baseball bat, he shot and killed her, and was charged with murder.
Yesterday, he was acquitted of all charges against him.
I have to say it…
Friday, February 9th, 2018Jarndyce v Jarndyce.
Monday, February 5th, 2018Charles Dickens, call your office, please:
It seems fair to say, 11 years after James Brown’s death, that his estate planning has failed in its major mission: to distribute his wealth efficiently.
Not a penny has gone to any of the beneficiaries of his will, who include underprivileged children in Georgia and South Carolina, to whom Mr. Brown sought to donate millions, perhaps tens of millions, of dollars.