Legal Commentary

Judge Rules That Beaten Hooters Waitress Entitled to Unemployment Benefits

Posted on January 06, 2009
An administrative law judge has rendered in interesting ruling that a Hooters waitress was entitled to unemployment benefits after she was beaten and left bruised. Judge Teresa Hillary ruled that Sara Dye, 27, was barred from work due to her inability to present a “glamorous appearance...

Lawyer Wins 2008 Best Lie Award

Posted on January 06, 2009
Lawyers across the nation are beaming with pride this morning after one of our own was awarded the coveted title of the best lie of 2008. The The Burlington Liars Club award in Milwaukee went to lawyer Garth Seehawer, 71, of Oconto Falls, who told a whooper about his grandson: “My grandson is [...

Small Town Values: Police Officer Alleges Political Considerations Delayed Arrest of Bristol Palin?s Future Mother-in-Law

Posted on January 06, 2009
Alaskan Investigator Kyle Young sent an e-mail to the Public Safety Employees Association claiming that political pressure delayed the arrest of Sherry Johnston ? whose son Levi Johnston is engaged to Palin’s daughter, Bristol ? until after the November election...

New York Man Arrested for Posing as Doctor and Convincing People To Given Themselves Rectal Examinations

Posted on January 06, 2009
New York police have arrested construction worker, John Brady, 49, in a rather odd crime. Brady is accused of calling people and posing as a doctor. He would then convinced them to give themselves a rectal examination while he was on the telephone. He has been charged with second-degree aggravated harassment...

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Judge Drives Drunk, Hits Police Cruiser in Construction Zone, and Makes Racist Remarks to Police Officer ? Will Attend a Class and Get a Clean Record

Posted on January 06, 2009
Judge E. Curtissa Cofield, 60, has been sentenced in Manchester, Connecticut for her bizarre conduct on October 9th. Cofield was drunk when she went swerving through a construction zone before sideswiping a patrol car — injuring the officer, according to his lawyer...

Paparazzi Bait: Cops Accused of Forcing Woman to Be Decoy for Jamie Lynn Spear

Posted on January 05, 2009
The Los Angeles police are once again the subject of a lawsuit, but this truly a uniquely California form of abuse. The LAPD is accused to forcing a young woman, Adessa Eskridge, 27, to impersonate Jamie Lynn Spears as a decoy to trick the paparazzi...

Third-Hand Smoke: Experts Warn of Threat of Smell of Smoking

Posted on January 05, 2009
After courts and commentators have wrestled with the dangers of second-hand smoke, it appears that there is now third-hand smoke: the smell that lingers on smokers when they come back into a house or office. Experts are warning that third-hard smoke can be harmful — a finding that might move businesses to get [...

The Houses that Jimmy Built: Habitat for Humanity Homes Taken to Court Over Alleged Shoddy Work and Poor Foundations

Posted on January 05, 2009
Fairway Oaks, Florida was the scene of a moving demonstration of volunteerism. There was former President Jimmy Carter and 10,000 volunteers building the entire house estate in a 17-day blitz. Residents have now gone to court to complain that the volunteers did a poor job and that the charity never disclosed that it [...

Court Awards $65 Million for the Men of the USS Pueblo

Posted on January 05, 2009
In a largely overlooked ruling, a federal judge in Washington awarded more than $65 million to sailors of the USS Pueblo who were captured and tortured by North Korea in 1968. The men — William Thomas Massie, Donald Raymond McClarren, Dunnie Richard Tuck and the estate of Lloyd Bucher — and were given [...

Arkansas Prosecutors Continue Prosecution of Man for Illegal Videotaping of Teen in Shower ? Even After Girlfriend Admits to Framing Him

Posted on January 05, 2009
There is a strange criminal case on the docket in Arkansas where Kevin Dale Robinson, 34, is charged with illegally recorded a 16-year-old girl in a shower but claims that his girlfriend told police that she took the video to get him into trouble. The prosecutors have refused to drop the case...

Mamie Manneh?s Monkey Meat: Court Rules Against Free Exercise Claim in Smuggling Case

Posted on January 05, 2009
A federal judge in Brooklyn has rejected the free exercise claim of Mamie Manneh that she has a constitutional right to import monkey meat without a permit. The Liberian woman was found guilty of smuggling the meat by Chief District Judge Raymond J. Dearie and faces five years in jail...

Richardson Withdraws Under Cloud of Investigation

Posted on January 04, 2009
Bill Richardson has withdraw his nomination to be commerce secretary in the face of a federal grand jury investigation into whether he exchanged government contracts for contributions to three Richardson political committees. At the heart of the controversy is a California firm CDR Financial Products that is accused of pushing through a contract with [...

Leading Israeli Newspaper: Pity for Palestinians in Gaza is Immoral and Unethical

Posted on January 04, 2009
An editor of has declared that any pity for the Palestinians in Gaza is “unethical and immoral.” The editorial by Adi Dvir appeared in Israel’s largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, on January 4, 2009 as the international community has complained about civilians deaths in the campaign and the United States blocked a United Nations [...

Collie Contraband: California Supreme Court Upholds Mandatory Disclosure of All Pets of Probationers ? Great and Small

Posted on January 04, 2009
The California Supreme Court has ruled that probationers must disclose any pets — great or small — in their possession or risk going back to prison. In a 5-2 ruling, Chief Justice Ronald George held that “[p]ets residing with probationers have the potential to distract, impede and endanger probation officers...

The Right to Be Profane: South Dakota Supreme Court Upholds Right to Swear At Police

Posted on January 04, 2009
Marcus J. Suhn was not happy about bars closing at 2 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2007. So, when a cruiser passed by in Brookings, South Dakota, he screamed “f—ing cop” and let loose with a stream of profanities at the police. He was arrested for his potty mouth, but the South Dakota Supreme [...

Vote Now, Read Later: Democrats Plan a Bush-Like Push on Economic Stimulus Legislation

Posted on January 04, 2009
President George Bush and the GOP were long criticized for forcing through the Patriot Act, Iraq resolution and other major legislation without adequate time for most members to read, let only discuss, the legislation. The Democrats often folded in the face of such pressure — only later admitting that they never read intelligence reports [...

Death in Gaza: Tape Reveals How Israeli Captain Pursued and Shot to Death a Fleeing Thirteen-Year-Old Girl

Posted on January 04, 2009
A very disturbing story had emerged from Gaza after the shooting of a child. People are not only alarmed at the shooting of 13–year-old Iman al-Hams, but by the attitude and lack of remorse of an Israeli officer who killedher. When confronted by other soldiers, the officer said that he did not care [...

Homeless Man Charged with Murder After Firefighter Ran Over By Fire Truck

Posted on January 03, 2009
A case in Elizabeth, New Jersey is raising some difficult questions about the limits of liability for injuries to emergency personnel. Emilio Vasquez, 19, a homeless man from Guatemala, is charged with breaking in a home and starting a fire to stay warm...

Disabled Man Left Overnight in Bus on New Year?s Eve

Posted on January 03, 2009
Edwin Rivera, a 22-year-old with cerebral palsy, was left over night in New York in the freezing temperature on New Year’s Eve after a bus driver left him on the bus in the depot. Criminal charges are being considered. Linda Hockaday, 51, who helps the bus driver, faces charges of first- and second-degree reckless endangerment [...

Discounting History: Wal-Mart Declares War on U.S. History

Posted on January 03, 2009
Wal-Mart Corporation already has a dark reputation for its treatment of employees, wiping out of small local businesses, and thuggish litigation practices. Now, it has decided to go to war with historians in trying to force through a huge store in the middle of one of the most important historical areas from the Civil [...

Punitive Extraction: Dental Student Wins $1.7 Million From Four Faculty Members for Dismissal

Posted on January 03, 2009
In an impressive verdict, Alissa Zwick a former dental student at the University of Michigan has won a $1.72 million verdict with punitive damages from four faculty members (Dr. Marilyn Lantz, an associate dean, and Drs. Bill Piskorowski, Mark Snyder and Fred Burgett) for her dismissal for alleged academic deficiencies...

TURLEY BLOG WINS TOP SPOT IN ABA JOURNAL SURVEY

Posted on January 03, 2009
Well, the results are in and weeks of defamatory attacks on our opposing bloggers and the unrestrained use of the politics of personal destruction have paid off: the Turley blog was voted the Number One law professor blog and legal theory blog in the annual survey of the American Bar Association’s survey...

The Barkley Defense: Yes, I?m Drunk But I?m Horny Too

Posted on January 02, 2009
Now, in the library of curious celebrity defenses, Charles Barkley takes the cake. When stopped for drunk driving in Arizona, Barkley explained that he would not have been speeding except for the need to have oral sex as soon as possible. The criminal indictment recalls how Barkley explained that he was in a hurry to [...

Father and Uncle Charged With Murder in Idaho Death of 11-Year-Old Girl

Posted on January 02, 2009
Robert Aragon, 55, and Kenneth Quintana (shown left), 29, have been arrested in Idaho for the second-degree murder and felony injury to a child after he allowed 11-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy to attempt a 10-mile walk to their mother’s house on Christmas Day...

Cruz Control: Past Case Haunts Burris Appointment

Posted on January 02, 2009
While I believe that the efforts in Illinois and Washington to block the Burris appointment are flagrant abuses of power, there is a legitimate reason to decry the choice. It is not due to the presumptively guilty man who appointed him but the clearly innocent man he wanted to kill: Rolando Cruz...

The Mink Menace: Fur Defended as Act of Self-Defense

Posted on January 02, 2009
Fashion and Chanel icon Karl Lagerfield has defended wearing fur as nothing more than “killing those beasts who would kill us if they could.” Finally, someone who is willing to tell the truth about those human hunting chinchillas and rabbits and their plan for world domination...

Six-Year-Old Girl Killed on Electric Fence of Neighbor in Texas

Posted on January 02, 2009
Police in Elysian Fields, Texas are dealing with a relatively rare form of alleged tort and crime. Marcos Gonzalez is accused of causing the death of six-year-old Ceira Clark by electrifying his fence with 20 amps. Clark lives next door and fell on the fence on the day after Christmas...

Army Employee Admits to Being Israeli Spy . . . And Faces Five Years In Prison

Posted on January 02, 2009
In a little covered story, a former employee of the U.S. Army?s Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey , Ben-Ami Kadish, pleaded guilty to being a spy for Israel and allowing an agent of the Government of Israel, Yossi Yagur, tp photographed secret papers at his home...

AirTran Grounds the Irfans: Muslim Family Removed From Plane For Discussing Air Safety

Posted on January 02, 2009
For those who believe we are becoming a nation of cringing morons, AirTran has supplied a wonderful case in point. A family was boarding a flight to Orlando, Florida and discussing where is the safest place to sit on a plane. It is a fairly common topic on planes but this family was [...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Posted on January 01, 2009
Happy New Year to everyone on the Turley blog. This has been an extraordinary first year of the blog which is approaching two million hits annually. The success of the blog is due largely to our regulars who continue to make this one of the smartest and most fun blogs on the web...

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