Archive for June, 2016

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You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#30 in a series)

Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

I’ve written previously about the growing scandal involving New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and his fund raising.

Latest, and semi-breaking news: two more people have been arrested and charged with fraud.

One of them is a “hedge-fund financier”.

The other one? Norman Seabrook, also known as the head of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association. The COBA is the union that represents New York City’s corrections officers (about 9,000 members).

But wait! It gets better! One of the people the feds have targeted is now a cooperating witness!

The charges, brought by prosecutors in the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, involve Mr. Seabrook’s investment of $20 million from his union and its annuity fund in Platinum Partners through Mr. Huberfeld [the hedge-fund guy – DB], and Mr. Huberfeld’s payment of a kickback to the union leader, according to the criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday morning.

More:

Mr. Rechnitz [the cooperating witness – DB] delivered the payoff to the union leader in an $820 Ferragamo bag bought specifically for that purpose. He laid out the cash, according to the complaint, and was repaid by Platinum through a scheme that disguised the reimbursement as payment for Knicks tickets — two $3,750 seats at eight games.

It amuses me enormously that they had to buy a designer bag specifically for their payoffs. Also, the Knicks tickets must have been a major clue: who’s going to pay $7,500 to watch the hapless Knickerbockers play?

Posted in Cops, Law, NYPD | Comments Closed

Annals of law (#10 in a series)

Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

Two sort of random notes:

1. Jana Duty, the elected district attorney of Williamson County (Williamson County is just up the road from Austin/Travis County: it covers Round Rock and Georgetown) has been placed “on probation” by the State Bar of Texas for 18 months.

Duty will still be able to practice law but will have to comply with the terms of her probation.

Why? “Professional misconduct”. Specifically, Ms. Duty was accused of withholding evidence in a murder case.

“It is unknown to the court why Ms. Duty intentionally and willfully withheld the means to view time stamps on the Walmart Surveillance video other than from Ms. Duty’s statement that “(defense counsel) acted so horribly to me during the first trial, that I just — I didn’t want to speak to them,’” the court document said.

Here’s the Wilco DA’s website. I find that quote from Article 2.01 deeply ironic.

2. On Monday, a judge for the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals ruled that Sonia Cacy was innocent of murder.

Ms. Cacy was sentenced to 99 years in prison in 1993: she allegedly doused her uncle with “an accelerant” and set him on fire.

Except there were problems with the evidence.

During at punishment retrial in 1996, her new attorney enlisted Dr. Gerald Hurst, the late Cambridge-educated chemist from Austin, to evaluate the forensic evidence that clinched conviction against her. Hurst discovered that the original tests, conducted by Joe Castorena of the Bexar County Forensics Lab, had been completely misread. The results didn’t find the indicators of an accelerant as he claimed. Castorena, a toxicologist by training, had in fact identified the products of pyrolysis—compounds created by burning plastic, which in many ways are similar to those of an accelerant.

Lots of problems:

…Castorena, the toxicologist, admitted in a letter to her [Cacy’s – DB] counsel, Dallas lawyer Gary Udashen, that the clothing samples he’d tested had been contaminated in either the morgue or the lab. Thus, his baffling reasoning went, anyone who didn’t know about the contamination couldn’t accurately interpret the results. Asked why he never reported this, Castorena replied, “nobody asked me.”

The full court has to concur before Ms. Cacy is officially exonerated, but as the TM article notes, that almost seems to be a formality now.

Posted in Law, Politics, WCDA, WillCo | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: June 8, 2016.

Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

The LAT is reporting the death of actress Theresa Saldana.

She was in “Raging Bull” (which, oddly enough, I have never gotten around to watching) and the 90’s TV series “The Commish”.

It makes me feel weird to say this, but: she was perhaps best known as the victim of a vicious attack by a deranged stalker in 1982. She was stabbed 10 times before a passerby pulled the guy off her. I don’t want to say this was the first celebrity stalking attack, because I’m sure someone will prove me wrong: but it was one of the earliest I can remember, and one of the first to draw public attention. (Ms. Saldana played herself in “Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story”, the movie based on her case.)

[Arthur R.] Jackson [the deranged stalker – DB] was convicted of attempted murder and held in California state prison until being released in 1996 and deported to the U.K., where he was committed in 1997 to a psychiatric institution after pleading guilty to killing a man 30 years earlier. Jackson died in 2004.

Posted in Law, Movies, TV | Comments Closed

The paper of record.

Wednesday, June 8th, 2016

Two interesting bits from the NYT:

1. I noticed this yesterday, and Lawrence emailed me about it as well: Rudolph Stocker retired from the Times on May 18th at the age of 78.

Who?

Rudolph Stocker was the last printer at The Times working under a guaranteed lifetime contract; the last Times employee who knew how to operate a Linotype casting machine; the last journeyman of the old International Typographical Union and its New York local, No. 6, a bargaining unit that was once so powerful and important that everyone in the newspaper business knew it simply as “Big Six.”

When the Times went over to computer typesetting, part of their agreement with the union guaranteed job security to the existing printers (“…1,785 situation-holders and full-time substitutes, 810 of whom were at The Times”).

Did he sit on his butt after the paper phased out the Linotype?

“Rudy was an expert proofreader,” his colleague Barbara Natusch recalled, “and transferred his skills from operating a Linotype machine to producing ads for the paper on a Mac, using InDesign and Photoshop.”

Sounds like a hell of a guy. I hope he has a happy retirement.

Through his colleagues, he made it known that he was not interested in a valedictory interview.

2. The Times Insider talks about the process of getting Ali’s obit into the paper, including a literal “stop the presses”.

It’s always kind of nice to know these people are human, too:

“Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop smoking,” Mr. Coffey said, imitating Lloyd Bridges in the disaster spoof “Airplane!”

Posted in Clippings, Media | Comments Closed

Obit watch: June 6, 2016.

Monday, June 6th, 2016

Peter Shaffer, noted playwright (“Equus”, “Amadeus”).

The production [“Equus” – DB] also attracted a remarkable parade of replacements for Mr. Hopkins, including Anthony Perkins, Alec McCowen, Leonard Nimoy and Richard Burton. Burton subsequently starred in the 1977 film version, directed by Sidney Lumet. (A 2008 Broadway revival starred Richard Griffiths as Dysart and Daniel Radcliffe as Strang.)

I’ve never seen “Equus”, either the play or the film; I wouldn’t mind seeing Burton, but I’m also oddly fascinated by the idea of the Nimoy version.

Posted in Obits, Theatre | Comments Closed

It’s not the bullet that kills you…

Friday, June 3rd, 2016

…it’s an allergic reaction to the sulfa drugs they were giving you to manage infection, this being in the days before modern antibiotics.

At least, that’s what a medical professional of my acquaintance told me yesterday; this is not a theory I had heard previously, but I trust this person implicitly. It seems like the one thing we know about the death of the Kingfish is how little we really do know.

IMG_0708

For example, this may not be a bullet hole at all: it may be just “an imperfection in the marble”, according to that NOLA.com article I linked yesterday. I’m not sure I agree with their police work there, Lou. It looks awfully strange to be just an imperfection in the marble. But on the other hand, it also seems to be in a strange spot for a bullet hole. If you’re facing the pillar, I’d say it is roughly at a 270 degree angle from the front, almost around to the back side. Maybe someone trying to hide could have been hit there? Maybe it is a hole, but from a bodyguard’s gun?

Context:

IMG_0709

Expanded context:

IMG_0710

IMG_0712

Posted in History, Photography, Travel | Comments Closed

One more.

Thursday, June 2nd, 2016

I was going to crop and enhance this, but I imported it into Shotwell, took a look at it…and I’m actually kind of happy with the way it came out, unenhanced and uncropped.

osc

Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This is distinct from the new State Capitol, which is where Huey was actually shot (more on that later) but the gun and bullets on on exhibit in the old one.

Taken with the little Nikon Coolpix S6500.

Posted in History, Photography, Travel | Comments Closed

Random gun geekery.

Thursday, June 2nd, 2016

Also: a historical note, suitable for use in schools.

Taken with the iPhone camera, cropped a little, and enhanced in Shotwell:

FN

I like the use of the word “supposedly” there, but that’s another discussion for when I have more time.

And don’t forget who else used an FN 1910.

bullets

A little more context on Weiss, Guerre, and the bullets, along with a lot of the assassination mythology, here.

Posted in Guns, History, Photography, Travel | Comments Closed

Musical interlude.

Wednesday, June 1st, 2016

Apropos of nothing in particular:

Posted in Music | Comments Closed

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