Legal Juice

So you're Troy Blackford, and you like to gamble. One day back in 1996, you're in the Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino (owned by the County), and you get ticked at a slot machine. You punch it and yell at it. As a result you are banned from ever returning to the casino. No matter. You keep returning and losing money. A few years go by, and you request that the ban be lifted. Denied. You still keep going back. You even get added to your wife's account, apparently due to a casino employee's error.

Then, Blackford's lucky day came, May 5, 2006 - or so he thought. As reported by the Des Moines Register,

Blackford ... sauntered up to Dynamite Jack, a 25-cent machine that showed promise. He bet the maximum amount - 45 quarters, or $11.25 per roll - and pushed the "Spin" button.

Lights flashed. The credit-count soared. Gamblers turned and stared as Dynamite Jack delivered $7,181.25, which boosted his total to nearly $10,000.

A female employee walked over, smiled, and asked for two forms of identification.

Uh-oh. It turns out that

Banned gamblers get flagged when they win more than $1,200, when employees recognize them, or when spouses call the casino ...

Police ticketed Blackford, took his winnings, read the trespass warning again, and watched him leave.

So, the casino is delighted to take your money when you lose. But when you win more than $1,200, they're still delighted to take your money! (So the money goes to a state account to help gambling addicts. A good cause, surely, but it's not the casino's money to give!) Now I can see the criminal trespass charge (which was dismissed), but taking his winnings? That's wrong. So Blackford took the case to court and ... lost. He will probably appeal. You can read more (a fair amount) here.

How can that be? I have no idea. As reported in the Edmonton Sun:

According to the agreed facts, the victim disclosed to her parents that Lister had sexually assaulted her on approximately six occasions between September 2005 and June 2006 when she was between 11 and 12 years old.

The girl said she'd been alone with Lister in the day-care van when the incidents took place and could only recall details of the last assault, which involved him telling her to lie down on the bench seat and then fondling her.

If you are incredulous now, it gets worse.

Court also heard Lister had worked as a janitor for the Edmonton Public School Board and as a bus driver for Edmonton Transit until he was convicted of rape and gross indecency in 1981 and sentenced to six years.

One has to wonder how many other victims of this predator are out there, given the 25 years just between these 2 convictions. So what was the punishment?

Lister was ordered to be under a nightly curfew for the two years, to take counselling, to perform 150 hours of community service and to stay away from young children.

He was also placed on the national sex offender registry for 20 years, ordered to submit his DNA to the national DNA databank and banned for life from going to any parks, playgrounds, pools, daycares or any other places where there are children under 14.

Oh, plus two years probation. BFD! This guy is a predator. UFB. No justice. Here's the source.

It may have seemed like infinity, but no, only twenty-five years! And it may not be over yet! As reported on Canada.com:

In 1983, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represented clerical workers at Canada Post, filed a human rights complaint against the corporation, saying it paid lower wages to the mostly female workers of its clerical section, than to the mostly male workers in its operations section.

The union wanted Canada Post to pay $300 million in back wages to about 6,000 current and former workers, most of them women.

Why did it take so long? Ten years of investigating, and almost 12 years of hearings!

Finally, in 2005, a tribunal of the Canadian Human Rights commission upheld the discrimination complaint but ordered Canada Post to pay only half the amount in back-pay the union had asked for.

Not so fast. The Federal Court of Canada just overturned the award, and Justice Michael Kelen was pissed!

"The long hearing before the Tribunal is reminiscent of the trial in Charles Dickens' Bleak House over the Jarndyce Estate," Justice Kelen wrote. "Jarndyce v. Jarndyce concerned the fate of a large inheritance, which dragged on for many generations. The trial finally came to an end after legal costs had devoured the entire estate."

The group representing the Canada Post workers is deciding whether it will appeal. Mercy! You can read more here.

... and jail them too. Egyptian blogger Karim Amer got four years for criticizing Islam and President Mubarak on his blog. He's now been in jail for a year.

Karim Amer, who is serving his prison sentence in Borg Al-Arab Prison, Alexandria, wrote in his letters to one of his legal counsels that he was beaten on 24 October 2007.

Karim Amer said he was punched and kicked by a prisoner and a prison guard under the supervision of a prison investigations officer. One of his teeth was broken and he was badly bruised. He was then taken to a disciplinary cell, hand-cuffed and his legs tied up and beaten again by the same two individuals on the orders of the prison investigations officer.

After he was beaten, he was put in solitary confinement in a disciplinary cell until 2 November 2007. During this period, he was given only one meal and one bottle of water a day and not allowed to send letters. He was finally moved back to the prison section where he was initially detained on 7 November 2007 and held in an individual cell.

Karim Amer was first detained by the Egyptian authorities for twelve days in October 2005 because of his writings on his blog (karam903.blogspot.com) about Islam and the sectarian riots that took place in the same month in Alexandria's Moharram Bek district. These riots followed reports that the video of a play believed to be anti-Islamic was being screened in a Coptic church in the district.

In March 2006, disciplinary measures were taken against him by al-Azhar University and he was dismissed. The university's disciplinary board found him guilty of blaspheming Islam.

He was rearrested in Alexandria on 7 November 2006 following a complaint made against him by al-Azhar University. He remained in detention since then until his sentencing, following a series of extensions.

The things we take for granted ...

How can a 34-year-old man, who admitted to a four-month-long sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl not see the inside of a cell? He was originally sentenced to 3 years but, on appeal, the court reduced the sentence to 1 year and 4 months. Why? The court concluded there was "real love" between Vicenza butcher Antonio de Pascale and the girl. Truly frightening, as are the comments of Judge Simonetta Matone of Rome:

The law must 'always look to be reasonable in these cases. Every relationship is a relationship and the real maturity, whether physical or psychological, of the minor must be weighed, with the help of experts.'

What? No! No weighing, your honor. I wonder where she would draw the line. Twelve? Ten? And why is it likely that de Pascale won't do any time? Because Italy currently has a general amnesty for anyone sentenced to less than 3 years. A fitting end to an outrageous case. To read more (a little), click here.

Think again. You are not a "manual scavenger." As described by writer Sunil Kuksal:

The term ‘manual scavenging’ describes the daily work of manually cleaning and removing human feces from dry (non-flush) latrines across India. Workers, mostly women and young boys, are also referred to as ‘night soil workers’, a Victorian euphemism that hides the repugnance of the word ‘shit’... Using a broom, a tin plate and a drum, they clear and carry human excreta from public and private latrines, more often on their heads, to dumping grounds and disposal sites.

Did I mention that the Indian government passed a law banning the employment of manual scavengers in 1993? It doesn't seem to matter, since, as Mr. Kuksal notes:

The practice is on in almost all states, including Bihar, Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir and even Delhi. The Indian railways is one of the largest employers of manual scavengers.

And in an affidavit, the railway admitted that it has about 30,000 open-discharge toilets [that need to be cleaned manually]. How many people do you think are doing this job in India? According to the Indian government, 343,000. Why would anyone do this job? Per Mr. Kuksal, it's caste-based, and is forced on the dalits by caste pressure.

I'll call him Fuzzy because, well, I don't know his name. Since he's a minor and wasn't charged with a felony, his name has been withheld. Now technically, Fuzzy didn't actually "streak" across the Parkland High School (Pennsylvania) gym [during a basketball game!] because he had a sock on his ... jimmy. You're the school superintendent. What do you do? I would suspend him for a couple days. But nooooooooooooo, not Superintendent Louise Donohue. She booted him, for the rest of the year, to an alternative school (also attended by [former] knife-wielding students) run by a private company. Said Fuzzy of the punishment:

It's just because of the publicity, I think. I'm still sorry for what I did -- I would never do it again -- but that punishment is … out there.

We're with you, Fuzzy. To read more (a fair amount) click here.

Englishman Elliot Carnell caught one hell of a break. After drinking 15 pints of beer at a Christmas party, Carnell punched his ex-wife's Sri Lankan boyfriend in the head - 6 times! Oh, and he hit his ex-wife and her daughter when they tried to stop him. Carnell copped to the racially aggravated assault, and was sentenced to 150 hours community service and alcohol counseling. But wait ...

As if that sentence wasn't light enough, it's gets worse. When Carnell showed up to begin his community service (picking up litter), he was ordered to stop! Why? Because he's a truck driver, and officials were concerned that, with the additional work [the community service], he would exceed the maximum of 48 hours per week for a truck driver! And he might be tired and get in an accident. Said Mr. Carnell:

I was a bit bewildered by what happened but I'm happy. I was willing to do the punishment.

Said Ms. Carnell:

I'm really upset. It's not right. Now he's free to go to the pub drinking with his friends and causing trouble. He should have gone to jail. It's not a strong enough punishment. He must be laughing.

Probably. And this is not Mr. Carnell's first racially related assault. His prior conviction was for popping a German dude wearing an England football shirt. You can read more (just a bit) in the Daily Mail article.

So far it hasn't set David King back any, either. And this has to go down as the slowest getaway in the history of crime. Mr. King rented a narrowboat for 2 weeks in Cheshire, England. The boat's top speed - 4 MPH! You can probably guess what Mr. King did when his 2 weeks on the $80,000 boat were up. He kept right on going. Despite a national manhunt, King avoided capture for 5 weeks! And we're not talking about open water. We're talking CANALS!

What did the Judge have to say?

Your behaviour was quite bizarre and I'm bound to say quite inexplicable. Due to stress engendered by debts and family pressures you went off the rails and stole a narrow boat and then went off for a month. That is very off behaviour.

So you'll make him pay, right Judge? Nope. He got a 6-month suspended sentence, and is the subject of a 12-month supervision order (translation: probation?). Surely he has to pay the boat owner for the estimated $58,000 spent to fix the boat up? And for the lost rental income? Nope. To read more, click here.

(For this story, you can safely put aside your position on legalizing marijuana. It's not about the pot.) So back in April 2006, then-Cpl. Edward Sanchez, of the Dearborn, Michigan police, called 911 and said:

I think we're dying... We made brownies and I think we're dead, I really do.

As you might imagine, this sparked an investigation, during which Sanchez resigned.

Not exactly your fall-on-the-sword type of guy, Sanchez first told investigators that, while he was sleeping, his wife took the pot out of his car. His wife (who admitted to taking cocaine from her husband's police car and using it during a 3-week binge!), truly a stand-by-your-man woman, told investigators that she tricked her husband into eating the pot brownies.

It wasn't long, though, before Sanchez cracked. He admitted that, not only had he taken the pot from his car, but he also made the pot brownies! And, per investigators, he admitted to taking the pot "off the street from unknown persons." Wow. So many laws broken, yet neither Sanchez nor his wife was charged with any crime! It's not over yet, though. Said Dearborn Councilman Doug Thomas, who said he will investigate the matter further:

If you're a cop and you're arresting people and you're confiscating the marijuana and keeping it yourself, that's bad. That's real bad. That's like apprehending a bank robber and keeping some of the money for yourself.

You can read more in the Detroit Free Press article by Jennifer Dixon here.

So at long last, the slumlord, anesthesiologist Esmat Zaklama, appeared before Guttenberg, New Jersey Municipal Judge Frank Leanza. Here's a little history on Dr. Zaklama (from the New Jersey Law Journal):

"Dr. Zaklama has a history in North Jersey of being a slumlord," said Judge Leanza. Summonses issued to him by Guttenberg and other towns would go ignored for years, and fines continued to mount up. "The police had to find him and arrest him."

When Zaklama was finally brought before Judge Leanza in March 2006, he had amassed over $200,000 in fines.

Leanza said Zaklama had appeared before him once before and, facing high bail, appeared to fake a heart attack but then checked himself out of the hospital the next day without undergoing any tests.

So guess what Zaklama did when he appeared before Judge Leanza?

"He grabbed his chest again," said Leanza. "We [the judge and court staff] looked at him and laughed. We assumed he again feigned a heart attack." Eventually, Zaklama walked out of the courtroom.

So why is Judge Leanza, a judge in good standing for 17 years, facing a reprimand? Because after hearing Zaklama's excuses for ignoring all those summonses, he called it "a lot of bullshit." Zaklama told the judge that he had not answered the summonses or warrants because he was away. How did Judge Leanza know this was bullshit? Because he had run into Zaklama in different town halls on numerous occasions! Frankly, it's bullshit that the judge is facing any charges! Here's hoping he walks. You can read more here.

Some of us, like Michael Righi (and me), have a real problem with groundless intrusions into our lives, even small ones. (If you're inclined to give up your rights because "you have nothing to hide, so what's the big deal," you might want to skip this one.) Mr. Righi was leaving a Circuit City store in Pittsburgh, after paying for his item. Per Mr. Righi's blog, here's what happened next:

As I headed towards the exit doors I passed a gentleman whose name I would later learn is Santura. As I began to walk towards the doors Santura said, “Sir, I need to examine your receipt.” I responded by continuing to walk past him while saying, “No thank you.”

As I walked through the double doors I heard Santura yelling for his manager behind me. My father and the family had the Buick pulled up waiting for me outside the doors to Circuit City. I opened the door and got into the back seat while Santura and his manager, whose name I have since learned is Joe Atha, came running up to the vehicle. I closed the door and as my father was just about to pull away the manager, Joe, yelled for us to stop. Of course I knew what this was about, but I played dumb and pretended that I didn’t know what the problem was. I wanted to give Joe the chance to explain what all the fuss was for.

Mr. Righi continues:

I twice asked Joe to back away from the car so that I could close the door. Joe refused. On three occasions I tried to pull the door closed but Joe pushed back on the door with his hip and hands. I then gave Joe three options:
“Accuse me of shoplifting and call the police. I will gladly wait for them to arrive.”
“Back away from the car so that I can close the door and drive away.”
“If you refuse to let me leave I will be forced to call the police.”

Joe didn’t budge. At this point I pushed my way past Joe and walked onto the sidewalk next to the building. I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.

So what do you think the police officer, responding to Mr. Righi's call, did? He busted Mr. Righi (for "obstructing official business"), patted him down, cuffed him, put him in the cruiser, took him to the station, booked him and finger printed him. Mr. Righi's dad posted his bail. And why was Mr. Righi busted? No, not for refusing to show his receipt (that is voluntary - you can read more about that here and here). He was busted because he refused to show the police officer his driver's license, which he was not required to do! By the way, he was nowhere near the car, and anyway, he was a passenger!

Mr. Righi will beat this charge. It's just incredible that it was brought in the first place. And if you're wandering about Mr. Righi's credentials, at age 26, he is an accomplished computer professional, as highlighted by the news stories about him on his blog (in the Q & A section near the bottom).

Props to Cindy Hill for submitting this story to Legal Juice!

Then high-school junior Amy Doninger was ticked off that the battle of the bands (Jamfest) was cancelled. So, at home, on her own blog, she posted an entry stating that

Jamfest is canceled due to the douchbags in central office.

As events unfolded, it turns out her characterization was pretty accurate. Her punishment? She was told to apologize to the school superintendent, show her mom the blog entry, and withdraw her candidacy for Class Secretary (an office she held since entering high school). She agreed to the first two, but would not withdraw from the race. So the school refused to let her run (she would have won as a write-in candidate, but the votes were ignored!), and she filed suit, claiming that the school violated her right to free speech.

The result? She lost! "The content of the blog was related to school issues, and it was reasonably foreseeable that other LMHS students would view the blog and that school administrators would become aware of it," said U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kravitz. I think her Mom, who was praised on local radio for telling Avery "you're grounded, and we're going to federal court to file a civil suit," has it right. She said

Punishment is up to me. This erodes the training ground for the democratic process, which must be that you have to distrust democracy occasionally in order to make it work. The embedded lesson of democracy at Lewis S. Mills is hollow. Theirs is an overreaching power to orchestrate.

Here's hoping the Court of Appeals agrees. You can read more here.

Her name isn't "Fannie." It just sounds better than "Fudge Shop Catherine." Ms. Catherine Delgado recently moved to Maryland from Massachusetts with her 2 and 4 year old kids. Per her attorney, last month her boyfriend was charged with beating her and fracturing her eye socket. So things weren't going real well for Ms. Delgado. Maybe that's the reason for what happened next.
According to the police in Annpolis, Maryland (and the survellance footage, doh!), Ms. Delgado broke into Uncle Bob's Fudge Kitchen (located on "Main Street" of course) and stole $89 in fudge. She was busted soon thereafter when a police officer saw large bricks of chocolate in her purse. And what did Ms. Delgado do then? Obviously, she tried to flush it down the toilet (really). You can imagaine how that went down. (sorry)

So she was arrested, and held on $100,000 bond! She had been in jail for 28 days when she appeared before Judge McKenna. Said the Judge to Assistant State's Attorney Carolynn Grammas:

I'm underwhelmed. Do you suspect she is part of a chocolate stealing ring or something?

He reduced her bond to $10,000. She is now out of jail. In deciding to reduce her bond, Judge McKenna told Ms. Delgado: "You sound intelligent. The most stupid thing you could do is run."

And what might the defense be? "Clearly there was some alcohol involved," said Ms. Delgado's attorney to the Judge. To read more, click here.

All Randy Miller ever wanted to be was a soldier. He achieved that in 2004, when he enlisted and was assigned to the elite 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He volunteered to be a paratrooper, not the safest of choices. He made 22 jumps and, along the way, picked up two Army Achievement Medals and a Combat Infantryman Badge.

One of the jumps didn't go so well. Miller's parachute didn't open, and the backup only partially opened. He hit the ground pretty hard after falling from 900 feet, but walked away, though not uninjured. He didn't know it, but he had torn the meniscus in his knee.

Then he was shipped off to Iraq, where he served from the winter of 2005 until the spring of 2006. Upon his return, his knee having gotten much worse (the meniscus tear increased to four times it's original size) he went to a bunch of military doctors, none of whom did anything.

One fateful night, Miller was in a gay bar when he was propostioned by a male soldier. When he rejected the soldier's advance, the propositioning soldier told Miller's superior that he was gay.

So Miller was left with a choice - lie about who he is, or tell the truth and see his career ruined, his life forever altered. There was never a choice as far as Miller was concerned. He admitted he was gay, and got booted just days before the completion of his second year. Because of this, Miller had to repay his signing bonus, which of course he'd already spent. Also, whenever Miller applies for a job, his employer will know the reason for his "honorable" discharge because it is stated within the discharge papers.

Miller's response? "I loved the Army. I've been trying to get back in, but I can't. I never got in trouble for anything." He's now working for the U.S. Census Bureau. Miller plans to enroll in college to become an emergency medical technician. I'm sure the people whose lives he saves will shudder at his sexual orientation. You can read more here in Joe Goldeen's piece for The Record.

You may have heard a lot of media noise about the potential bursting of the housing bubble. Well, a correction in the real estate market is the least of Kwaku Atta Poku’s worries.

Mr. Poku—a hard-working immigrant from Ghana and owner of a small taxi business—carefully paid and kept a record of every mortgage check. In fact, some months Mr. Poku paid more than was required on his mortgage. So you can imagine Mr. Poku’s surprise when he learned that his house not only had been put up for sale, but that it had been bought ten days later by a real estate investor.

The most tragic part of the story is that it looks like Mr. Poku never did anything wrong. He lost his house because his mortgage company couldn’t find key documents that would prove his initial loan had been paid, a bank didn’t have its paperwork in order, and the title company that handled Mr. Poku’s refinancing is now out of business. Even though Mr. Poku kept photocopies of all his mortgage checks, he couldn’t prove that the original check issued to pay off his first mortgage was accepted because he only had a photocopy of the front part of the $96,599.74 check.

So What Happened to Mr. Poku?

Continue reading "Can You Lose A House You Paid For?" »

No amount of money can give these falsely convicted men back their lives (2 of them died in prison), but the $101,750,000 awarded by U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner certainly makes a statement. In 1965, a small-time hoodlum named Deegan was killed. One of those known by the FBI to be involved in the killing, Joseph Barboza, turned FBI informant. In order to protect him, with Barboza as the star witness, the FBI framed four innocent men. Louis Greco, Henry Tameleo and Peter Limone were convicted of Deegan’s murder and sentenced to death. Joseph Salvati was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted as an accessory to Deegan’s murder and two counts of conspiracy.

Tameleo died in prison after serving 15 years. Greco died in prison after serving 27 years. Salvati was released after serving 30 years, Limone after serving 33 years. The despicable conduct by the FBI is laid out in great detail (with key events and documents in a timeline) by Hans Sherrer in this article for Justice Denied. For a recent story on the Judge's award of damages, click here.