Archive for the ‘Law’ Category

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Random notes: December 3, 2013.

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

Obit watch: William Stevenson, most famous as the author of A Man Called Intrepid.

(I remember Intrepid being all over the place when I was growing up. Oddly, given my interests at the time, I never got around to reading it.)

Also among the dead: noted Texas historian and author T.R. Fehrenbach.

Trial update #1: Pavel Dmitrichenko has been convicted in the acid attack on Bolshoi Ballet director Sergei Filin. Dmitrichenko was a Bolshoi soloist, who (according to the WP) felt that Fillin was not giving him “the best parts”. He’ll do six years in prison. Yuri Zarutsky, the man who actually threw the acid, will serve 10 years. Andrei Lipatov, the driver, will serve 4.

The three were also ordered to pay 3.5 millions rubles (about $106,000) in damages to Filin.

(Previously.)

Trial update #2: I am keeping an eye on the Bell/Spaccia trial. It went to the jury before Thanksgiving, and, as far as I know, the jury is still deliberating. (There wasn’t much to report towards the end; just the usual “Rizzo did it”.) I suspect the holidays threw things off quite a bit; stay tuned for details as I get them.

Trial update #3: The trial of Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli started yesterday. Ramos and Cicinelli were police officers with the Fullerton police department: they are charged with beating Kelly Thomas to death. (Previously. Graphic image warning.)

Posted in Books, California Über Alles, Cops, History, Law, Obits | Comments Closed

Random notes: November 28, 2013.

Thursday, November 28th, 2013

Some thoughtful posts on the FDA and 23andMe: Derek Lowe. Popehat. Overlawyered.

This is how I want Lawrence‘s tax dollars to be spent: safety tips on turkey frying from the Round Rock Fire Department.

All the Vermeers on the Eastern Seaboard.

(There was a period of time when I was going to see a lot of movies at the Dobie Theater here in Austin; this was before the Alamo Drafthouse, and Dobie was the “art” film theater. Anyway, it seemed like every movie I went to see had the trailer for “All the Vermeers in New York” in front of it. Drove me absolutely bugf–k nuts. The trailer was so annoying, it killed any desire I might have had to see the movie.)

Photographer Saul Leiter passed away on Tuesday. I had not heard of Saul Leiter until I started listening to the “On Taking Pictures” podcast (which is my new favorite podcast in the world): Saul Leiter is an obsession of theirs, to the point where he made it into the OTP drinking game.

To be serious, I wish I had found Leiter’s work much earlier. There’s some good stuff over at the NYT Lens blog about him as well.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Food, Law, Movies, Obits, Photography | 1 Comment »

Just some random krep.

Monday, November 25th, 2013

The FDA has told 23andMe to stop selling their DNA interpretation service.

I note this for a couple of reasons:

  1. Earlier this year, they were advertising all over many of the podcasts I listen to.
  2. I’ve flirted with the idea of getting a 23andMe kit as a Christmas or birthday present. (Hey, you get one for a family member, you get many of the benefits of purchasing your own, plus you’ve got that whole gift thing taken care of.)
  3. I did not complete the purchase process, but as far as I can tell, 23andMe is still selling their product.
  4. “This product is a device within the meaning of section 201(h) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 321(h), because it is intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or is intended to affect the structure or function of the body.” Nope. Not seeing it. At best, it tells you that you have some genetic markers that may indicate a predisposition towards a condition. I have serious questions about the way the FDA is interpreting the regulations here.
  5. What business is it of the federal government how people get their genetic information and what they do with it? “But what if they’re wrong?” Seems to me you have the same recourse as you would with any other consumer product; complain to the maker and ask for a refund or a do-over. But that’s apparently not good enough for our government, which feels like it has to do something about the scourge of non-goverment-approved genetic testing labs.

The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is dumping the pirate show. I can remember seeing it (more or less) twice: once in the “original” version, which was more of a straight-forward pirate battle, and once in the “Sirens of TI” incarnation, where the “pirates” included scantily clad young women. Treasure Island is dumping the pirates in favor of more retail space. Sigh.

Questions. So many questions.

  • Isn’t it kind of crappy to let one of your most popular personalities go right in the middle of the annual “Bicycles For the Crippled Orphans Left Behind By the Widow of the Unknown Soldier for Christmas” campaign? Yes, his contract was apparently up (“at the end of the year”, which, to me, implies December 31st), and yes, it isn’t unprecedented to let people go around this time of year (Not that I’m bitter or anything) but couldn’t they have worked out something to at least let him stay and finish out this year’s charity campaign? I think it makes the station look bad.
  • Why does a morning radio show need four on-air people?
  • “In the most recent Nielsen (formerly Arbitron) ratings period, Mix 94.7 placed 12th. Its morning ratings, however, are much higher.” How much higher, you jackass? You’re the one with the AllAccess account! (According to a post from the same blogger back in October, JB and Sandy didn’t crack the top five.)
  • Dudley and Bob are still on? Wow.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Law, Radio | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 22, 2013.

Friday, November 22nd, 2013

Jim over at the Travis McGee Reader made a good point a few days ago: both Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis died on this date 50 years ago, but it seems like they got lost in the shuffle. (Although, according to Wikipedia, “In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of his death, Lewis will be honoured with a memorial in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.” Good.)

(If I was going to have a fantasy dinner party, I’d actually have two: one with C.S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton. I have a tremendous admiration for both men, and think it would be fascinating to sit and talk with them.)

(The other dinner party would be with Robert Ruark and Peter Hathaway Capstick. And maybe some other folks, too; I’d think I’d also invite Harry Selby and Tam. But I digress.)

And the day before, Robert Stroud passed away. I’d have to go back to the morning papers from the 22nd to see what kind of play Stroud’s death got, but if he got lost in the shuffle, I’d have to say “Good”.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell my readers (all of whom are strong, smart, and if they have children, their kids are all above average) this, but for those who may be coming here for the first time and don’t know: contrary to popular belief and “Birdman of Alcatraz” (both the book and movie), Robert Stroud was a nasty piece of work. Bill James offers a pretty pithy summary in Popular Crime:

Stroud, among his other charming qualities, liked to write violent pornography in which he fantasized about abducting, raping, and murdering small children. Alvin (Creepy) Karpis, a famous criminal from the 1930s who was confined with Stroud at Alcatraz, wrote in his account of life on Alcatraz that Stroud talked constantly about raping and killing children, and insisted that he wasn’t bluffing: if he had gotten a chance, he would have done it. This led to a Kafkaesque scene at a parole hearing for Stroud in 1962. Outside the building protestors marched, holding placards demanding the release of the kindly bird doctor portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the movie, while inside the hearing parole officials dealt with a distinctly disturbed old man who mumbled about getting out of prison soon because he had a long list of people he wanted to kill and not much time left to kill them.

(And, yes, Stroud may have been abused by the prison system. Even nasty pieces of work deserve humane treatment and the protection of the law. But between the book by Gaddis, which is basically hagiography, and Babyak’s Bird Man: The Many Faces of Robert Stroud, which I think has a different set of biases, it is hard to tell how much actual mistreatment Stroud suffered, and how much of it was inflated or even invented by Stroud and his fan club.)

Herbert Mitgang, reporter and editor for the NYT, and author of Dangerous Dossiers, has died.

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

Random notes: November 22, 2013.

Friday, November 22nd, 2013

What a way to start the morning:

Jim Crane’s Astros ownership group filed a state court lawsuit Thursday against former Astros owner Drayton McLane, Comcast and NBC Universal, accusing them of fraud and civil conspiracy and accusing McLane’s corporation that owned the Astros of breach of contract in conjunction with Crane’s 2011 purchase of a 46 percent interest in the parent company of Comcast SportsNet Houston.

(Previously.)

Hunting rats. With dogs. In Manhattan.

The hunts are conducted something like a country fox hunt, but in an urban setting. Members say it allows their dogs — mostly breeds known for chasing small game and vermin — to indulge in basic instinctual drives by killing a dozen or two dozen rats each time they are let loose.

This is legal in Bloomberg’s New York?

The group sometimes gets tips from homeless people or police officers, Mr. Reynolds said. In fact, he said, some officers have gone from initially being suspicious of what they were doing to suggesting rat locations and wishing them luck.

…

A spokeswoman for the New York City Police Department said there was no information available on the legality of using dogs to hunt rats in the city.

Save horce racing! Put USADA in charge!

The United States Anti-Doping Agency is the last and best hope to return safety and integrity to the troubled sport of thoroughbred racing, members of the industry told Congress at a hearing Thursday.

The state of Alabama has granted posthumous pardons to Haywood Patterson, Charles Weems and Andy Wright. You know them better as three of the nine Scottsboro Boys.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Horses, Law, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch: November 20, 2013.

Wednesday, November 20th, 2013

There are no undefeated teams left in the NFL this season. The Kansas City Chiefs lost on Sunday.

We all know what that means, right?

Or do we?

After the jump, this week’s TMQ…

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, Law, NFL, TMQ watch, TV | Comments Closed

Well, that was quick.

Saturday, November 16th, 2013

Noted for completeness: Ken Anderson is out of jail.

Anderson already had credit for serving one-day in jail before his sentence began, however. He had his term further reduced because of good behavior.

I guess by “good behavior” they mean “he didn’t withhold exculpatory evidence in order to convict the wrong man while he was actually in jail”.

I’m not sure when his community service starts.

(Previously.)

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

That’s how they got Al Capone, you know.

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

Former Bell administrators Robert Rizzo and Angela Spaccia had companies that they used to lower the taxes they owed on the extraordinary salaries they earned in the small, working-class city, a prosecutor said Friday.

More:

Rizzo’s attorney has said he expected federal prosecutors to charge his client and Spaccia with conspiracy to file fraudulent tax filings. Court documents show that an accountant in an alleged tax fraud with Rizzo and Spaccia pleaded guilty this year.

And:

Spaccia said that after taking the job in Maywood, she started sleeping with a gun because she felt threatened by the gangs and city police officers whom she perceived to be corrupt.

Spaccia was the acting city manager in Maywood. Remember Maywood?

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Guns, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 9, 2013.

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

Dr. Michael Brown was taken off life support yesterday, and died in a Florida hospital. Dr. Brown had been in a coma for two weeks, apparently as the result of a suicide attempt.

I wrote about Dr. Brown a while back, but I didn’t do a very good job of keeping on top of the story. This is a shame, as it got even stranger after I wrote about it, and got really strange in the past month or so.

For those who don’t recall, Dr. Brown (no relation) was a Houston hand surgeon who built a chain of clinics. Then his wives accused him of domestic abuse and drug addiction and his behavior became increasingly erratic. Most recently, he was convicted of assaulting a flight attendant and sentenced to 30 days in prison. He also went into bankruptcy – apparently voluntary, but he engaged in a long series of disputes with the bankruptcy trustee. There are supposedly two suitcases full of cash missing from Brown’s assets, according to the current trustee.

One of the reasons I avoided writing about Dr. Brown was that the whole story is incredibly convoluted and bizarre. You would need an entire book to do justice to everything that went on. I hope someone (perhaps a HouChron or HouPress reporter) is working on that book right now; when it comes out, I’ll buy it.

It’s the classic story of the guy who had it all, but couldn’t control his personal demons. It wouldn’t make a good movie, because there’s really no redemptive arc. But as a true crime book, it should make good reading.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Justice?

Friday, November 8th, 2013

I have written previously about the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton, and the prosecution of former Williamson County DA Ken Anderson for withholding evidence in that case.

According to the timeline at the Texas Tribune, Michael Morton was convicted on February 17, 1987, and released from prison on October 4, 2011. Microsoft Excel tells me that is 8,995 days. (I am not taking into account time Michael Morton served while awaiting trial, since I can’t find a good figure for that.)

Former Williamson County district attorney Ken Anderson will serve 10 days in jail and give up his law license for hiding favorable evidence in the 1987 trial of Michael Morton, who served almost 25 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

The ten days Ken Anderson will serve, on a “contempt of court” charge, work out to 0.11% of the time Michael Morton served.

Posted in Clippings, Law, WCDA | Comments Closed

Hair Club for Mayors.

Friday, November 8th, 2013

Perhaps one of the worst things about committing a crime, or even being charged with one, is all the background stuff that tends to leak out about you. Your tastes in porn, booze, interior decoration…all of those things come out at trial.

You may beat the rap, but you can’t beat the embarrassment of everyone knowing that you scammed money to pay for cheap vodka or lap dances from low-end strippers or Michael Jackson memorablia.

Or, in today’s example…

The city of Bell paid $10,000 for former councilman George Cole to go to a weight-loss camp and also paid for Mayor Oscar Hernandez to get hair plugs, prosecutors said Thursday.

Here’s a photo of former Mayor Hernandez from earlier this year, if you want to judge the value Bell got for their money. Former Mayor Hernandez, by the way, was making “just under” $100,000 a year for what was a part-time job. WebMD says that hair transplants run between $4,000 and $15,000. Or you could buy lasers for $549.

And as for George Cole…

Cole’s top annual salary was $67,000, his attorney said. At the time, he was earning nearly $95,000 a year as chief executive of the Steelworkers Old Timers Foundation.
In 2004, the city paid the state pension system $36,648 to buy Cole an additional five years of service time. Cole was one of 11 Bell administrators for whom the city bought service time.

The Biggest Loser Resort in Malibu charges about $3,000 a week (though the longer you stay, the more of a break you get on the weekly rate).

Surely you would think that these folks could afford to pay for their own weight loss and baldness treatments. But they didn’t, and now everyone knows.

(And to be clear, I don’t throw stones at people who get hair plugs or go to weight loss resorts. I throw stones at people who scam money from the taxpayers to do those things. “Tax-fattened hyena”, indeed.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Lasers, Law | Comments Closed

The Adams Testimony.

Thursday, November 7th, 2013

Were you wondering what Angela Spaccia, former assistant city manager of Bell, looks like wearing a bathrobe and smoking a cigar?

Wonder no more.

What does this have to do with corruption in Bell? Well, Spaccia texted that photo to Randy Adams, the former police chief, and it was introduced as evidence during Adams’ testimony yesterday. I think the prosecution’s intent is to establish that the Adams/Spaccia relationship went beyond the bounds of “professional”: not necessarily romantic, but perhaps a closer friendship than either one is letting on. (In turn, I guess this is intended to make the jury question Adams’ testimony for Spaccia.)

In other news, Adams was shocked, shocked! that the city of Bell was willing to pay him $457,000 a year to be Bell’s police chief. But Randy Adams appears to be much like the great Clay Davis: he’ll take any motherf—-r’s money if he givin’ it away!

It is perhaps worth pointing out that Mister Shocked, Shocked I Am:

…who had recently retired as Glendale’s police chief, wanted a salary in excess of $400,000.

It is also worth reminding folks that before he moved over to Bell, Adams was paid half as much in Glendale and ran a much larger department. And let’s not forget that little disability pension thing, but I suspect that will come out in the cross-examination.

I hate to jump to conclusions here, but I’m not sure calling Adams as a defense witness was the brightest thing Spaccia’s council could have done.

In the meantime, since you’ve got it stuck in your head anyway….

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Banana republicans watch: November 6, 2013.

Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

Politics depress me. In general and in specific. (I’m not sure how I feel about the Astrodome being declared dead.)

But there is at least one bright spot. Voters in the bankrupt municipality of San Bernardino threw out several elected officials in a recall election.

Those given the axe:

  • “Longtime councilwoman” Wendy McCammack. This is interesting because Ms. McCammack was also the top vote-getter in the San Bernardino mayor’s race. However, there were a total of 10 candidates, and she got “just under” 25% of the vote. I wonder how many of the eight other candidates are going to throw their support to her, and how many will support “Carey Davis, an accountant and political newcomer”.
  • City attorney James Penman. City attorney is an elected rather than appointed position? Interesting.
  • Robert Jenkins, “charged with more than 30 felony and misdemeanor counts related to allegedly posting ads on Craigslist for sex partners and directing them to a former partner and another man”.

I haven’t been giving much attention to the Angela Spaccia/Bell trial. Most of what I’ve seen in the LAT has been the usual back and forth we’ve seen in the other trials: “City council approved!” “Did not!” “Did too!” “Rizzo’s a big poopy head and it was all his fault!”

(There have been a few amusing bits I missed covering. Among them:

(Former city attorney) Edward Lee said that even though his name was on most of the contracts, he did not recall signing them, raising the possibility that his name was forged or that the papers were slipped to him in a stack of other documents that required his signature.

The contracts in question being those for Spaccia and Robert “Ratso” Rizzo. This is interesting: while I can’t find the story now, I do recall reading that former Bell finance director Lourdes Garcia slipped contracts for Spaccia and Rizzo into stacks of other documents that were signed blindly by city officials.)

Things are getting a little more interesting. Randy Adams, the former police chief of Bell, is testifying for the defense today. You may remember former chief Adams from such hits as “I’m looking forward to see you and taking all of Bell’s money?!”, “Hire me and give me my disability pension“, and “I don’t know why he is not a defendant in this case”.

Note to self: stop off at grocery store on way home, stock up on popcorn.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

You can’t touch this.

Saturday, November 2nd, 2013

So Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, former city manager of Bell, is going to prison. He’s expected to be sentenced to somewhere between 10 to 12 years (the actual sentencing is scheduled for March), and he’ll probably do about half that time.

Ratso also has to pay compensation to the city of Bell. As far as I can tell, there hasn’t been a final decision on the amount (I’m guessing that will be part of his sentencing) but it could be up to $3.2 million.

Where will that money come from? Rizzo sold his house at a loss, and it looks like the same thing is happening with his ranch.

Two places the money won’t come from: Rizzo’s retirement account, and his pension of $116,628 a year.

…city officials say they are legally prevented from going after the pension and the retirement account — which appear to be Rizzo’s main remaining assets — limiting how much the city can get back from him.

More:

State law says that an elected official convicted of a felony loses his pension, but an appointed city official like Rizzo is not covered by the law.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | 2 Comments »

That ’70s post.

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

Ah, the 1970’s. What a time.

Remember Alexander Calder, the noted sculptor? Died in 1976? Well, he had a dealer, Klaus Perls, that he worked with exclusively. It was, by all accounts, a close and very friendly relationship.

Was.

In a recently amended complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court, the Calder estate says the Perlses surreptitiously held on to hundreds of Calder’s works and swindled the artist’s estate out of tens of millions of dollars. Perhaps most surprising, it says that Perls, a dealer with a sterling reputation who campaigned to rid his industry of forgeries, sold dozens of fake Calders. The suit depicts Perls as a tax cheat who stashed millions of dollars in a Swiss bank account, a secret his daughter said she maintained by paying off a former gallery employee with $5 million. She added that Calder had his own hidden Swiss account.

It looks like the Perls family stipulates at least part of these claims, specifically the parts about the Swiss bank accounts. But they also claim that part of the reason Perls had a Swiss bank account is so he could transfer profits to Calder’s Swiss bank account.

In court papers, Mr. Wolfe, the Perls lawyer, said, “Alexander Calder and Klaus Perls were kindred spirits in that they both had an aversion to paying taxes.”

I knew there was a reason I liked Alexander Calder’s work.

The 1970’s were also a time when it was much easier to get your hands on explosives. Especially if you were 17 years old. And if you were peeved at the California Department of Water and Power.

The blast ripped apart a 4-foot-wide steel gate that regulates the flow of water to the aqueduct. Windows were blown out of the gatehouse atop the spill gates and its concrete floor buckled.
About 100 million gallons of water meant for Los Angeles were instead flushed into Owens Lake, which had been dry since the Department of Water and Power opened the aqueduct in 1913.

Nobody was injured. Mark Berry, one of the two men responsible, spent 30 days in juvenile detention. And he now works for the DWP.

(I love this telling detail: “The air was filled with the banana-like smell of nitroglycerin.”)

(And this one: “Berry said his father, as yet unaware that his son was one of the culprits, boasted to a neighbor, ‘If I ever find out who bombed the gates I’ll buy him a steak dinner.'” Gardner Dozois and Edward Abbey, please call your offices.)

(Since I made a “That ’70s Show” reference, I believe I have to link to this Penny Arcade. Especially since I am all about fish out of water prison dramas.)

Posted in Art, California Über Alles, Clippings, Explosives, Law, Sarcasm, TV | Comments Closed

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