Legal Juice

As you'll see, this defense is not available to everyone... As reported by The Times:

The driver was a belly dancer who had stopped in her car in a restricted parking zone in London. She had left her vehicle stationary with the engine running, and walked off with some props into the building where she was to perform. She was issued with a [ticket] ...

On what grounds did she contest the ticket?

She explained that her conduct was necessary because in her car she had snakes that she was about to use in her “exotic dance routine”. She needed to leave the engine running, she explained, in order to keep her reptiles warm to stop them from falling asleep. If they fell asleep they would, the appeal was told, be difficult to rouse quickly enough for their impending stage performance with the dancer.

Could you say no to a belly dancer with that defense? I didn't think so. Neither could the court. "Her appeal succeeded and the fine was cancelled."

Or else another blawg will win :( ... Anyway ... for the second straight year, the ABA (American Bar Association) Journal selected Legal Juice as one of the 100 best legal blogs (from a pool of 2,000+). Yada, yada, yada.

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK AND VOTE FOR LEGAL JUICE! It will take about 10 seconds.

Sounds crazy, right? But that's apparently the way it went down. As reported by WLWT.com:

Jamel Sechrest, one of 50 people accused of being members of the "Taliband" wasn't happy that his trial is set for February and told Judge Robert Ruehlman "That's f---ing bulls--t."

The Judge hit him with a 6-month contempt sentence, stating:

"You don’t say bulls--t in the courtroom."

What about "fucking bullcrap?" I know, I know. The Judge was probably so pissed off that he forgot to say "fucking bullshit." I'm just telling you what he said.

Here's a classic post with an extended give-and-take between an f-bomber and a judge. If you like that one, here's another. Enjoy!

For the second straight year, the ABA (American Bar Association) Journal selected Legal Juice as one of the 100 best legal blogs (from a pool of 2,000+). Blah, blah, blah.

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK AND VOTE FOR LEGAL JUICE!

So here's what Joseph Decker, of Hughestown, Pennsylvania, had on the back window of his truck:

IF YOU'RE IN AMERICA & CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH GET THE FUCK OUT!

I think that's idiotic, and I don't think Joe (Decker, not "the Plumber") would have a problem with my opinion. As reported by WNEP:

"Some people give me thumbs up, they say, 'Yeah, that's the way it's supposed to be.' Some people say, 'Oh, that's stupid you shouldn't have that on there.' Everybody has an opinion," Decker said Tuesday.

The Juice is a First Amendment diehard, but the local fuzz? Nope.

[Mr. Decker] was recently cited by Hughestown police for disorderly conduct because of the "obscene language" on his truck. He's fighting that charge.

And he's going to win. He has the law on his side, and a lawyer, Barry Diller, who has won 2 similar cases recently.

Dawn Herb of Scranton was charged for swearing at her overflowing toilet. People outside heard her. A judge ruled Herb's First Amendment right to free speech was violated. She won a settlement of $19,000.

Dyller said he also won a settlement of $19,000 for a man from Larksville charged with swearing at police.

Is it just me, or does it seem like these cases are worth somewhere in the neighborhood of, say, $19,000? You can read more (a little bit - and see a picture of the truck) here.

For the second straight year, the ABA (American Bar Association) Journal selected Legal Juice as one of the 100 best legal blogs (from a pool of 2,000+). It is one of ten in the "Quirky" category.

From the ABA's announcement of the top 100: "Half the blogs on last year’s inaugural Blawg 100 list didn’t make the cut this year. That’s a testament to the quality of this year’s honorees, and evidence of the increasing amount of valuable information all legal blogs are publishing." [Valuable information on Legal Juice? Really?]

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK AND VOTE FOR LEGAL JUICE!

Come crunch time, I guess we all occasionally make the wrong decision. This would appear to be just such an occasion. As reported by The Naples Daily News:

When caught red handed with a pair of stolen $16 earrings, Naples police say a Golden Gate teen turned to drastic measures to get rid of the evidence — he drank them.

How do you drink earrings?

Police say Colburn was caught shoplifting the glamorous $16 jewelry by JCPenney loss prevention officer Leonardo D. Gonzalez just after 1 p.m. on Saturday. Gonzalez watched as Colburn selected a pair of earrings from the jewelry department, took them out of the box and placed them into a bottle of vitamin water, police said.

Colburn then left the store without paying for the earrings, reports said.

Gonzalez confronted Colburn about the earrings, and began escorting him back to the JCPenney loss prevention office. It was then, police said, that Colburn gulped down the rest of the vitamin water, earrings and all.

It's not looking good for Mr. Colburn, but it's still word against word, right? Nope.

When police arrived, Colburn was arrested and transported to NCH Downtown Naples Hospital for an X-ray. On the X-ray image, the earrings were observed inside Colburn, police said.

Damn that contraption! To read more (a fair amount), click here.

What's up with these crazy hoons? As reported by The Age:

A P-plate driver [driver with a probationary license] was caught doing burn-outs in a police station car park. The 23-year-old hoon left a 20-metre skid-mark in the Craigieburn police station car park before driving off. Police later impounded his VN Commodore for 48 hours.

That's a 65-foot skid mark! In a police parking garage! Here's another hoon story.

Yes, the kid was busted for farting in school, and otherwise "disrupting" his class. From TheLedger.com, here's the story:

A student at a Florida school has been arrested after authorities say he was "passing gas" and turned off his classmates' computers.

According to a report released Friday by the Martin County Sheriff's Office, the 13-year-old boy "continually disrupted his classroom environment" by intentionally breaking wind. He then shut off some computers other students were using.

The Spectrum Junior-Senior High School student was arrested Nov. 4. A school resource officer placed the boy under arrest after he confessed about his behavior, according to the report. He was charged with disruption of school function and released to his mother.

To read a totally unrelated school flatulence story, click here. And for a few other flatulence stories (relating to the law, of course), click here and here.

Surgery is scary enough. I'd like to know that my doctor is certain that operating while on crack would be a bad thing. It's not that California ear, nose and throat specialist Li Quang Nguyen actually operated while on crack, but check this out, as reported by the OC Register:

In July 2007, Dr. Nguyen was staying at the Howard Johnson Express in Huntington Beach. Police responded to a call that maids could not enter the locked room for cleaning. Police found Nguyen in a deep sleep. Police removed rock cocaine, a clear vial of liquid cocaine, a glass pipe and a lighter, the documents say.

Hard to say "what crack" in those circumstances, right?

Nguyen admitted to police that he had freebased cocaine the day before but said he was not "hooked," according to the documents. In April, he pleaded no contest to drug charges and was ordered to enter an 18-month treatment program.

Okay. Looking good, until the disciplinary hearing for his medical license...

... during his hearing, Nguyen said he knew nothing about the drugs and "went so far as to testify that he did not know if it would be dangerous to perform surgery under the influence of cocaine."

The board's disciplinary documents say, "He claimed he could not know if this would be dangerous since he had never tried it, but such an assertion made by a trained physician is simply preposterous and rather frightening."

What, what, what? Dr. Nguyen, who had a previous disciplinary action, had his license revoked. To read more, click here.