Legal Juice

A 13-year-old kid was busted for burping, so says the lawsuit!

If you don't like the maid, why not just fire her? And if you guessed that this didn't happen in the US, you're right. It was in Kuwait. Per the Arab Times:

Police have arrested an Asian housemaid for allegedly ‘ruining’ the family of her sponsor through black magic, reports Al-Shahed daily.

The arrest came when a Kuwaiti in his 40s filed a complaint with the police that seven days after hiring the housemaid there was a high degree of confusion in his home and he suspected the maid of doing black magic.


The man added he children complained of suffering from illusions and they looked terrified. He added he kept a watch on the maid and heard her uttering strange words while practicing magic in the kitchen. On the day of the incident he interrupted her and seized magic charms from her possession.


During interrogation the maid is said to have admitted to the act.

She added the family was treating her bad and wanted to take revenge.


Now that's the first thing that has made any sense.

The maid has been referred to the General Immigration Department to prepare her deportation from the country.

Well, as long as she got a fair hearing ...

Before you jump all over 19-year-old Calvin Morett [not pictured above - that dude is a "model"], remember that you were once 19 too. It seems Mr. Morett was not content to throw his cap in the air. Instead, he came to graduation dressed as a 6-foot penis, and sprayed students and school administrators with silly string (per The Albany Times Union). It didn't go over well. He was apprehended when he tripped on his, um, costume. He was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, disorderly conduct. The punishment for this "crime?" Three apologies (one of which will be published in the local paper), $95 in court costs, and 24 hours community service. What did Mr. Morett have to say for himself?

... he recently told a local television station that he thought the prank was worth whatever punishment he would face because he made people happy.

The Juice is most definitely a fan.

What name could be so bad that a Chicago Alderman held up the sign permit for 2 1/2 years? "Felony Franks". Yes, The Juice is scratching his head too. As reported by The Chicago Sun-Times:

After a 2½-year battle that culminated in a First Amendment lawsuit, the City Council’s Transportation Committee will meet on June 6 to issue the sign permit local Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd) has been blocking on grounds that the name sends a “bad message” to area students.

Sorry Bob, but you're the one sending the wrong message: censorship because YOU don't like the message.

The agreement hammered out in federal court this week stipulates that Fioretti and three other aldermen named in the lawsuit will no longer “oppose, interfere or obstruct” the permit application process for Felony Franks, 229 S. Western.

What does the owner of Felony Franks think?

“We live in the greatest country in the world. We have freedom of speech. If I cannot be allowed to call my business what I want, then we’re living in a dictatorship, not a democracy,” said owner Jim Andrews, who hires ex-offenders. “If you fight hard enough for what you believe in, the system works. The only thing wrong with the system is the consumer shouldn’t have to fight as hard as I had to fight for what’s right.”

And Bob, since when is helping to reintegrate ex-cons into society a bad thing? Oh, and about that lawsuit ...

[It's] still pending and Andrews is still demanding $293,000 in damages for business lost during the 2½-year sign battle.

Here's hoping Mr. Andrews is victorious. You can read more (a fair amount) here.

If you don't have a huge problem with this truly outrageous pat-down of a 6-year-old child, which includes "sensitive areas," ask someone to check your pulse. ENOUGH!

Without Johnny Law, there would be chaos, right? In this situation, Johnny Law needs to step off. In the Australian city of Whitehorse, little children drawing with chalk in front of a cafe have been deemed to be ... taggers! As reported by The Whitehorse Leader:

Children drawing with chalk on a Nunawading footpath have been labeled graffiti artists.

THEY MUST BE STOPPED.

Whitehorse Council has drawn the line over pre-schooler’s scribbles outside White’s Cafe in the Mt Pleasant Rd shopping strip.

Sally White, who runs the family-friendly cafe with husband PJ, said she was told by a council officer that the children’s drawings were graffiti and had to stop, after a complaint from a resident.

A single complaint? Was it the nature of the drawings?

Mrs White, who has boys aged three and four, said the cafe had allowed children to draw on the footpath of the quiet shopping strip for the past 12 months.

She said the drawings were usually stick figures, scribbles, fish or pirates.

Nunawading artist and author Lucienne Noontil, a cafe regular, said she could not believe anyone would find them offensive. ``I love the drawings and seeing the kids be creative,’’ she said.

First Tunisia, then Egypt, Wisconsin, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and now ... Nunawading!

Ms Noontil said stopping the drawings would dampen the strong community spirit of the cafe.

Mrs White said she and the children were all in tears when told the drawing had to stop so they had decided to still allow it.

HELL NO, WE WON'T ... stop letting the children create art that enriches their lives, enriches the community, and harms nobody... But wait! What about the mess?

Mrs White said they would be willing to wash the drawings off each afternoon when they shut or apply for a permit from council if that was relevant.

Curse you, reasonable lady! But Johnny Law is unmoved by any of this.

Council’s general manager corporate services Peter Smith said the drawings were in contravention of council’s Local Law No. 1 2006 and the state government’s Graffiti Act 2007.

``No matter the age of the person, drawing on public property is considered graffiti,’’ he said.

Let it go, Pete. Let it go. That appears unlikely.

Mr Smith said the council would be obliged to issue a compliance notice if the drawing continued or if a further complaint was received.

Silly complainer. Silly Council. If you're ever in Whitehorse, make sure you patronize White's Cafe, because Mrs. White is certainly deserving of your support for her pro-children, pro-art, anit-stupidity stance. Here's the source, which includes a photo of some of the artists.

Does it really matter how many tolls we're talking about? [2,362!] Or how much money is involved? [$558,000]. Apparently it does, per a court in China, which is now reconsidering its life sentence. As reported by xinhuanet.com:

A court in central China's Henan Province said Friday it would retry a farmer convicted of fraud and sentenced to life imprisonment for evading millions of yuan in expressway tolls.

The verdict may change because the defendant has indicated he had accomplices, said Liu Penghua, director of the political department of the Pingdingshan Municipal Intermediate People's Court.

Shi Jianfeng was convicted of fraud Tuesday for evading 3.68 million yuan (558,000 U.S. dollars) of expressway tolls.

"Shi said during an inquiry Thursday night he was manipulated by a relative," said Liu.

Shi, you're losing The Juice. "Manipulated?" Please.

Shi used fabricated military drivers licenses and mounted fake military license plates on his two trucks, the Pingdingshan Municipal Intermediate People's Court said.

The case drew attention and controversy on the Internet, with some saying the life-imprisonment sentence was too harsh and that expressway tolls are exorbitant. Tollgate records show Shi's two trucks used to transport sand and gravel avoided tolls 2,362 times in the nine months between May 2008 and Jan. 2009. The average toll each time would have been 1,558 yuan (236 dollars).

$236? Does that come with a massage? Here's the source.

It was a bad day for Hamilton County, Ohio's finest, but not nearly as bad as it was for John Harmon. Mr. Harmon, a diabetic, was suffering from low blood sugar when a police officer noticed he was driving erratically. So, after the police pulled him over, officers smashed Mr. Harmon's window, dragged him out of the car, tased him seven times, and just basically shit-stomped him. As reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer:

John Harmon was coming off a late night at work when he left his downtown marketing firm for his Anderson Township home just after midnight in October 2009.

The 52-year-old longtime diabetic's blood sugar levels had dipped to a dangerously low level causing him to weave into another lane.

A Hamilton County sheriff's deputy spotted him on Clough Pike and suspected drunken driving. What happened over the next two minutes and 20 seconds should never happen to anyone, Harmon said.

Deputies broke the window of Harmon's SUV, shocked him seven times with a Taser, cut him out of his seatbelt and wrestled him to the ground, severely dislocating his elbow, and causing trauma to his shoulder and thumb.

You can read a lot more, and see a video from one of the police cars, here.

Sadly, it's often not the case that "as ye sew, so shall ye reap." The latest case involves a Canterbury, New Zealand doctor. He began treating a 13-year-old girl, who then began babysitting his children. When the girl was 16, she was raped. Not surprisingly, the girl's mother took her to this doctor after the rape. As reported in The New Zealand Herald:

A sexual relationship developed with the doctor and lasted for about three months in 1985.

So this man preys on his patient, a 16-year-old rape victim whose mother placed her trust in him. Surely this man had his medical license revoked? Nope. After being found guilty of "disgraceful conduct," his license wasn't even suspended! And, his name will remain a secret! Here's his "punishment":

... he has been censured by the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal which fined him the maximum $1000.

The GP was also required to be mentored by a health professional for three years and ordered to pay $62,666.86 in costs.

How could he get off with a slap on the wrist for this abominable conduct?

The tribunal in its decision said there was no evidence the doctor had behaved inappropriately before or since.

It said the "proved conduct of the charge (was) entirely out of character" and granted the doctor permanent name suppression.

The victim, Ms. A, has it exactly right:

"The argument seems to be that seeing as he got away with it for so long, he might as well get away with it forever."

May fate serve up a dose of justice for the doctor. Here's the source.

Yes, death for a weed dealer. Regular Juice readers know that certain countries, like Malaysia, dole out harsh sentences for drug dealers Case in point: M. Jegatheswaran, age 32, had just over 2 pounds of marijuana in his motorcycle basket. Per the New Straits Times:

A traditional medicine seller was yesterday sentenced to death by the High Court for trafficking in 958g of cannabis ...at a car park area of a public housing flat in Ampang Jajar, Jalan Permatang Pauh, about 10pm on May 8, 2007.

High Court judicial commissioner Nurmala Salim ruled that the defence had failed to cast reasonable doubt on the prosecution's case.

Earlier in his defence, Jegatheswaran had said that he had gone to the flats to massage one of his customers. He claimed that the motorcycle he had used to get to his customer's place did not belong to him.

In her decision yesterday, Nurmala said Jegatheswaran's defence was one of mere denial.

A little too harsh for The Juice. Here's the source.

Lock the doors! Batten down the hatches! Man the battle stations! Why? The homosexuals are coming! Nooooooooo! As reported by The Arab Times:

KUWAIT CITY, April 29: Capital Governorate securitymen have arrested seven homosexuals for wearing indecent clothes while sea swimming in Sharq.
After receiving information on a group of homosexuals clad in indecent clothes, the securitymen rushed to the location and found some of the homosexuals swimming and others on the seashore. They were referred to the authorities for the necessary legal action.

Certainly the United States has a ways to go, but it ain't Kuwait.

So maybe wearing this particular shirt to court was not the best decision Jennifer LaPenta, 19, of Round Lake Park, Illinois ever made. But did it warrant two days in jail? As reported by the Lake County News-Sun:

Associate Judge Helen Rozenburg charged LaPenta with contempt of court for wearing the garment in her courtroom Monday. LaPenta was sitting in the gallery waiting for a friend's case to be called when the judge called her forward.

What did the shirt say?

"I own the [pussy], so I make the rules."

So what happened?

Rozenburg asked LaPenta if she thought her shirt was appropriate.

LaPenta said she told the judge that it would have been inapprorpriate had she been the defendant.

Rozenburg immediately sentenced her to 48 hours in jail and had her cuffed, LaPenta said.

Why wear that shirt?

LaPenta said that she had been at a gym Monday when her friend asked her for a ride to the courthouse. She was wearing sweat pants and that T-shirt when she was cuffed and jailed.

LaPenta said she bought the shirt in the gay section of Spencer's. She said she is openly homosexual and said the judge was a "homophobe" for putting her in custody for wearing the shirt.

"I'm shocked that the judge took the actions she did. She could have asked her to remove her shirt or leave the courtroom," said Peter Kalagis, LaPenta's attorney. "To me, that was an extreme action."

LaPenta said the judge did not give her an opportunity to turn her shirt inside out or exit the courtroom.

Here's the source.

A Good Samaritan in New York intervenes in a mugging and gets stabbed. As he is lying on the sidewalk bleeding to death, more than 20 people pass by him, and do nothing. Strike that. One guy did take pictures with his cell phone. It's just wrong that the one person who did care about his fellow man, and acted on it, died.

There is no substitute for proofreading. And to all you kids out there (don't hate The Juice for saying this) "spell check" is not proofreading. Heresy! But as for the importance of proofreading, check out this story from the Jakarta Globe:

A single clerical error can change the course of one’s life. Just ask Kamjai Khong Thavorn, 53, a Thai national who spent nearly three extra years in the maximum-security Pasir Putih Penitentiary in Nusakambangan, West Java, because of a typing error.

Kamjai was due for release in 2007 after a 20-year sentence he received in 1987 for heroin possession, but up until Wednesday, he was still behind bars. 

Having spent an extra three years in jail for no fault of his own, Kamjai was promptly released on Thursday after a chance meeting with Justice Minister Patrialis Akbar, who happened to be visiting the prison for an inspection. 



“Kamjai was released this morning and taken by immigration officials from Cilacap to the Thai Embassy in Jakarta,” Pasir Putih’s warden, Sutrisman, told the Jakarta Globe. 

Kamjai was arrested in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, on Aug. 20, 1987, for possession of 17.76 kilograms of heroin and sentenced to life in prison. His sentence was reduced to 20 years by a presidential decree. However, the decree mistakenly stated his first year in prison as 1997, instead of 1987.

Sutrisman said no relatives came to pick the inmate up from prison, so the nearest immigration office, in Cilacap, transported him to his embassy. 

“We realized the mistake that was made. So he was released unconditionally and immigration officials accompanied him to Jakarta without waiting for further response from the Thai Embassy,” Sutrisman said. Kamjai was “happy and enthusiastic” as he left the prison, the warden said. 

When Patrialis visited his maximum-security cell on Wednesday, Kamjai used the occasion to complain that he should have been released in 2007. 

Kompas newspaper reported that the minister assured the inmate he would be released the next day, causing Kamjai to burst into tears.

So he would still be in jail if not for this chance encounter. Damn! Here's the source.

Of all the reasons to fire somebody, this has got to be among the most idiotic. As reported by China Daily:

Two women have been fired from their jobs for refusing to drink at a company party.

No doubt they would have been fired had they gotten shitfaced. Maybe each employee should get a breathalyzer, along with guidelines for the acceptable BAC range...

He, an executive manager of an auto parts company in Hanyang, and her assistant refused to drink alcohol when their boss made a toast at their company's New Year party.

They were fired the next day on grounds of incompetence.

"This is not fair at all," He, who joined the company just a month back, fumed after receiving her termination letter.

There are more 5 million people in Scotland. So would it shock you to learn that some people have the same name? Me either. One name that at least 2 people in Scotland share is "Derek Lyon." One of them is a convicted drunk driver who lost his license, and the other is ... just Derek Lyon. Guess who the police busted? The wrong Derek Lyon. He told them that - but - you see - the machine had spoken.

And it got worse after the bogus bust. Mr. Lyon was taken to jail, where he spent 4 hours before being released. His car was impounded. Because he couldn't afford to pay the fees to get his car back, the police CRUSHED it! Nooooooooo! Without his car, Mr. Lyon couldn't get to work, and was fired. He also couldn't visit his kids for months because he lacked transportation. (He was arrested in July, and just recently acquitted.)

Think he's going to sue? Hell yes. As reported by Scotland TV:

Speaking after his court appearance, Mr Lyon, 36, of Balgarthno Terrace in Dundee, said he was going to sue Aberdeen Sheriff Court's clerk's office, the DVLA and Tayside Police.

He said: "I'm going to take legal action against the police for taking my car, the DVLA for putting somebody else's offence on my licence, and the court in Aberdeen.

"I haven't been able to drive until today. I spent four hours in the cells when I got arrested and my car got crushed even though I told them at the time it wasn't me.

"The police came the next day and I told them again that I'd never been in Aberdeen Sheriff Court and that I wasn't disqualified. The police in Dundee didn't believe me but a local policeman in Blairgowrie where I lived at the time did and he tried to sort things out for me."

To see the story as reported by Scotland TV, click here.

So this British woman (Penny Batkin) is driving her disabled son (he's 4, can't walk or talk, and has frequent seizures) to a hospice when she hears him gasping for air, as reported by The Telegraph. Of course she immediately pulls over to resuscitate him, which she does. Apparently almost everything in Britain is captured by CCTV (closed circuit television). Unfortunately for our heroine, patrolling CCTV-camera-wielding traffic wardens taped her pulling over - illegally, and fined her £100 ($145 US).

Surely the ticket would be dismissed when the authorities received her written explanation, with supporting documentation from the doctor? Nope. But she is pressing on with her appeal with the help of a disability advice charity called Richmond Aid.

A spokeswoman said: "It is absolutely shocking to discover that Richmond Council's parking office cannot find it in their hearts to rescind a parking fine incurred by a desperate mother who had no choice if she was to save the life of her child. We are so appalled we struggle to find the words."

*#@!&+%^! (That's the Juice also struggling to find the words.) Here's the source.

I will forever think of this case when I hear anything about the European Court of Human Rights. As reported by The Argus:

[Hypnotherapist Imad Al-Khawaja] was convicted in 2004 of indecently assaulting two women, then aged 20 and 47, while they were hypnotised.

Al-Khawaja was handed consecutive 12-month and 15-month jail sentences after the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts.

Said the Judge:

“This was an appalling breach of trust. You abused two vulnerable woman in your charge and under your control. You have not expressed any remorse for the distress you caused.”

About that remorse ...

When a disciplinary panel met in December to decide if he should be banned from medicine, Al-Khawaja sent them a letter quoting television comedian Catherine Tate: “Look at my face, am I bothered?”

Do you have a pulse? His 2 appeals within the United Kingdom were unsuccessful. But wait! What about the European Court of Human Rights? While they didn't overturn his convictions, they awarded him 6,000 euros (about $8,000 US) plus attorney's fees. And why would they do that?

Because he “inevitably suffered a degree of distress and anxiety as a result” of not being able to cross examine one of his accusers, whose written statement was read to the jury, but was not able to testify in person because she committed suicide before the trial! I still can't believe any court would give this man - who inflicted so much suffering - money for his "distress and anxiety." Here's the source.

Straight from Judge in the case, as reported by The Palm Beach Post:

"This case presents the strangest facts and set of circumstances that I've witnessed in my 28 years as a lawyer," Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga said as he sentenced Dean to life in prison.

So what happened?

... Marlow [the "victim"] found his apartment in the Villages neighborhood in West Palm Beach ransacked and saw Flint [the deceased] leaving on foot and Dean driving away.

Note - Christopher Dean, who was sentenced to life in jail for his co-burglar's death - was driving away from the scene.

Marlow pursued Dean up through the neighborhood and eventually back down Interstate 95. There he encountered Flint, 25, who had jumped a fence and was waiting alongside the highway for Dean to pick him up.

Marlow initially told police that, as his SUV approached, Flint turned and appeared to point something at him. Marlow said he ducked in his seat as his Suburban ran off the road and struck the suspected burglar.

So co-burglar Flint is killed by the burgled guy, and burglar Dean gets life in jail. How does that happen?

Under state law, a person can be charged with felony murder if someone else dies while the person is committing a felony crime.

Yes, burglary is wrong, but not this wrong. To read more (a fair amount) click here.

Regular readers know that the Juice is a hardcore free speech advocate. That said, I think most folks would agree with me that Pembroke Pines Principal Peter [damn you for not having a last name beginning with "P" !] Bayer grossly overreacted. As reported by CBS4:

On Friday, November 9th, 2007, then high school senior Katherine Evans posted a picture of her Advanced Placement English teacher, Sarah Phelps, on her page and called her "the worst teacher I've ever met."

Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I've ever met! To those select students who have had the displeasure of having Ms. Phelps, or simply knowing her and her insane antics: Here is the place to express your feelings of anger.

Evans created the posting after school hours and on her computer at home.

Principal Bayer suspended Ms. Evans for 3 days and "forced her into lesser honors classes." The actual "charges?"

At the time, Bayer said Evan's actions constituted "Bullying/Cyber Bullying Harassment towards a staff member" and "Disruptive Behavior."

My response? WTF? NFW! Ms. Evans' response? The ACLU filed suit on her behalf, stating that the posting ....

... was "protected off campus speech" and it didn't contain any threats of violence, did not disrupt any school activities and "gave rise to a spirited exchange of opinions by students who disagreed with Evans, who ultimately proved her wrong in her assessment of the teacher."

So what does she want? " ... that the three day suspension be revoked and removed from Evan's permanent record." Nevermind "the force." May the Juice be with her.