Paging Mike the Musicologist.

October 21st, 2011

Under questioning from [defense attorney Russ] Horton Thursday, [Bee Cave code compliance officer Michael] Polley said he couldn’t say what the definition of fine art was or how the mural did or did not meet community standards.

This was kind of an odd case, with a bizarre ending. Planet K, a local chain of head shops – excuse me, “adult novelty stores” – has been planning to open a location in Bee Cave, and had local artist Kerry Awn do a mural for them. The city of Bee Cave claimed the mural was an illegal sign, and went to court.

At trial, the judge issued a directed verdict – basically, ordering the jury to return a “not guilty” finding – because the city of Bee Cave failed to prove that “AusPro Enterprises”, the company being prosecuted, actually owned the property or had any connection to the Planet K chain.

In my experience, directed verdicts are rare. I can’t remember the last time I heard of one being issued around here. And it sounds like somebody in the Bee Cave DA’s office failed to do their homework.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Headline of the day.

October 20th, 2011

“After Red Sox’ Epic Collapse, Fans Are Consumed by Chicken and Beer”.

ETA: #2. “Exotic animal killings: ‘It’s always the animals that suffer'”.

#3: “Restaurant nudity to be debated in San Francisco”. (With SFW, but NSFLunch photo.)

Posted in Clippings, Food | Comments Closed

TMQ watch: noted.

October 20th, 2011

One of the suggestions TMQ has been making for reducing concussions in football is expanded use of “anti-concussion” helmets, as well as better fitting mouth guards.

With that in mind, we wanted to point out this article in today’s LAT:

“I wish there was such a product on the market,” Jeffrey Kutcher, chairman of the American Academy of Neurology’s sports section, said at a Senate hearing Wednesday. “The simple truth is that no current helmet, mouth guard, headband or other piece of equipment can significantly prevent concussions from occurring.”

It is fair to point out that TMQ has never suggested this equipment will totally prevent concussions. However, the article indicates that the alleged benefits may have been overstated: the Riddell Revolution helmet, which TMQ has endorsed, only reduces concussions by 2.6%, not the 31% Riddell claims.

Edited to add: Also worth noting: this NYT article about the death of Ridge Barden, mentioned in this week’s TMQ.

Posted in Clippings, Neuroscience, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Academic update: Fall 2011, part 1.

October 19th, 2011

The final grades have been posted in my “Constitutional Criminal Procedure” class.

And?

Or, to put it another way, I have done made the Fourth Amendment my…well, you know what I mean. The streak is still going.

(I’m also running out of awesome, though I do have one more “Star Trek” reference in the pipeline. I may have to resort to posting Plastic Bertrand videos.)

(“20% cooler in 10 seconds flat” explained here. Sort of.)

Posted in Law, School | 1 Comment »

A handful of randomness.

October 19th, 2011

Headline: “Texas Equusearch wants Casey Anthony to answer questions under oath”.

That’s nice. I want a pony.

From the linked article: “Texas Equusearch is suing Casey to recover the more than $100,000 it says it spent on searches for Caylee Anthony in 2008.”

On what basis? Texas Equusearch is a non-profit organization that volunteered their services. They had no contractual agreement with Casey Anthony, to the best of my knowledge, so what basis do they have for filing a suit to recover costs?

She may be guilty as all get out. But the courts disagreed: only God knows, and he will pass judgment at the appropriate time. Let it go, people.

He plays that Choctaw stickball every Friday night.

Ask not for whom the bells toll at Notre-Dame: Angélique-Françoise, Antoinette-Charlotte, Hyacinthe-Jeanne and Denise-David are going to be melted down and replaced next year.

The other day, I mentioned the California rogue PI setting up ex-husbands for DWI (plus running a brothel for the cops and selling drugs for cops) case. Balko covered this as well, prompting a lively discussion in the comments.

One of the commentators posted a link to a longer article from Diablo Magazine about PI Chris Butler, which I think makes for interesting reading. The writer apparently started out expecting a standard human-interest story about PI moms; it’s fascinating to watch his skepticism develop as things start not adding up.

The website also said that Glock Firearms is the official firearms sponsor of Butler and Associates investigations, and that all of Butler’s investigators and investigative interns are trained exclusively on the Glock model G19, 9mm compact semiautomatic.

The first part of that statement would have raised red flags with me: I’m not aware that Glock officially sponsors private detectives (though they do sponsor competitive shooters). It seems like something that would have been easy to check with a call to Glock’s PR department; curiously, there’s no indication that the author ever did make that call.

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

Triton followup.

October 19th, 2011

A long, long time ago, in the before time, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we noted that it was a bad idea to walk into someone’s office with a bottle of wine in one hand and an unloaded gun in the other.

That case took some strange turns. Ultimately, it seems to have marked the beginning of the end for Triton Financial, which turned out to be a huge Ponzi scheme.

But what of the gun-wielding woman?

Last week, the Travis County district attorney’s office dismissed the felony charge, which carried a maximum 20-year prison sentence.

The felony charge was for aggravated assault. She still faces a misdemeanor charge of “unlawful carrying of a weapon”.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Case brief: United States v. Aukai.

October 18th, 2011

Last one, folks. This might be of more general interest, for reasons I outline below.

United States v. Aukai is unusual for a couple of reasons:

  1. Unlike all of our other case briefs, this was not a Supreme Court decision, but an en banc ruling by the notoriously flaky (with the exception of the honorable Judge Alex Kozinski, praise be unto him) Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  2. This is specifically a case involving airport security and the limits of TSA’s ability to perform searches.

In Aukai’s case, he made the mistake of trying to get through airport security with a meth pipe in his pocket and meth on his person. Even dumber, he made the mistake of doing this without ID, which meant he was automatically selected for secondary screening. During the secondary screening, Aukai tried to withdraw consent and leave the secured area of the airport: TSA detained him, and eventually discovered the meth pipe and meth.

Aukai challenged his conviction for possession with intent to distribute on the grounds that once he stated he didn’t want to be searched and went to leave the secured area, the TSA had no authority to detain and continue searching him; thus, the meth pipe and meth were products of an “unreasonable” search and seizure and should be excluded as evidence against him.

Here’s the brief.

Posted in Law, School | Comments Closed

Onion Field update.

October 18th, 2011

Gregory Powell, about whom we have written previously, is seeking “compassionate release” from prison. Mr. Powell has been turned down 11 times for parole.

Former LAPD Officer Ian Campbell was unavailable for comment.

Edited to add 10/19: Not going to happen.

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

TMQ watch: October 18, 2011.

October 18th, 2011

The more TMQ columns we observe, the more we think Gregg Easterbrook needs a good editor.

After the jump, this week’s TMQ:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Food, Geek, Neuroscience, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

Your loser update: week 6, 2011.

October 18th, 2011

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Miami
Indianapolis
St. Louis

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | 3 Comments »

Joke of the day.

October 17th, 2011

The bartender says, “I can’t serve you. We’re in different relativistic frames of reference.”

A “faster than light” neutrino walks into a bar.

(Hattip: SnarkyBytes.)

Posted in Geek | Comments Closed

“B—h set me up!”

October 17th, 2011

California seems to be the home of that defense. I can’t find the post where I wrote about the teacher who had guns and drugs planted in his car (on school property) by his ex-wife and her boyfriend, but I do recall mentioning that.

Now we have a private detective agency that was allegedly taking money to set up ex-husbands on DUI charges.

I’ve got to admit that I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the way the LAT spins the story. I understand two chicks lured you to a bar, I understand one of them showed some cleavage; however, keeping under the legal limit is still your responsibility. There’s no evidence (and no accusation) that they drugged this poor guy’s drinks or anything like that.

On  the other hand:

In addition to setting up at least five DUIs, [Christopher Butler, the PI in question – DB] sold drugs for law enforcement officers and helped them open and operate a brothel, collecting and delivering the profits, according to prosecutors and a statement Butler gave them after his arrest.

That puts a different spin on things, but you don’t find out about these accusations until about halfway through the article.

Interesting legal note:

…prosecutors said Butler’s stings violated a little-used 19th century law that makes it a felony to conspire to subject another person to arrest. The female decoys have not been charged.

I wonder if Texas has a similar law?

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: October 17, 2011.

October 17th, 2011

I feel like I should say something about Dan Wheldon, but I don’t know what.

When I was a little kid, I was a big racing fan; I especially enjoyed watching the Indy 500. I still have a closet fondness for NASCAR: open-wheel racing kind of lost me with the whole CART/IndyCar debacle. But this is still just shocking and awful.

Surprising thing, though: the FARK threads have been more respectful than you’d think (this being FARK and all).

Posted in Cars, Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed

Random sports (and other) notes.

October 17th, 2011

I wasn’t planning to say anything about the Texas Rangers: last year was significant, this year, well, what can you say other than that they’ve gotten good?

However, I can’t help but take the opportunity to gloat a little here, since it appears that a Rangers/Cardinals World Series has John Gruber extremely upset. Poor guy.

Loser update tomorrow: Miami plays tonight.

“We’re the only ones professional enough to have 21 MP-5 submachine guns stolen from our training facility.”

Somewhat buried lead: the MP-5s were converted to fire blanks only.

The parts required to change the MP-5 back to live firing were for sale on a gun supply website. It was unclear, however, what documentation or background checks would be required to purchase them.

I am not an MP-5 armorer, but I would guess: probably none. I doubt any of those parts are serial numbered like AR lower receivers. And I’m curious where the LAT reporter got his information.

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

On Texas Soil.

October 14th, 2011

Steven Seagal, that is.

You may remember (from here or elsewhere) Mr. Seagal’s stint with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, followed by his guest appearance with Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. (I believe I failed to note that the subject of the cockfighting bust is suing Mr. Seagal.)

Anyway, Mr. Seagal has taken on a new law enforcement role: deputy with the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office. Hudspeth County is right on the border with Mexico (Wikipedia map.)

“It became very clear to me that Mr. Seagal is not in this for the celebrity or the publicity,” Sheriff Arvin West said.

The current status of “Steven Seagal: Lawman” is unclear to me, but I welcome updates.

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

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