Teen Who Sent Nude Photos on My Space Could Be Charged as Sexual Offender

The mother of the New Jersey girl whose death inspired Megan's Law is criticizing prosecutors who charge teenagers with child porn for distributing nude photos of themselves. Maureen Kanka said Thursday that the prosecutors are harming the children more than helping them. Good for her, speaking out!

Her comments came as authorities in Passaic County charged a 14-year-old girl with child pornography for posting nude photos of herself on MySpace.com. If she is convicted, she would have to register with the state as a sex offender under Megan's Law. Would that not be totally absurd?

The girl's name has been kept confidential because she's a minor, but she allegedly posted 30 naked photos of herself on the social networking site. Prompted by a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, authorities investigated the case for a month before zeroing in on the suspect, who said she posted the pictures for her boyfriend’s pleasure. Anyone who was online “friends” with the girl through the site or knew her name could see the pictures.

The teen was charged with one count each of possession and distribution of child pornography. Police remanded her into her mother’s custody. A sheriff’s department spokesman told NorthJersey.com that more arrests in the case are possible.

This is ludicrous, an example of overreaching insanity made crazier by our zeal to control sexual predators. It was not a law intended for kids playing strip poker as teenagers, or we would all be sexual offenders.

The Dallas Cop Debacle

One a.m. Suburban Dallas. You rush to the hospital to be near a dying family member. You get to the E.R.

A cop stops you: “License and insurance, sir. You ran a red light.”

“Man, my mom is dying inside.”

“Your attitude sucks, sir.”

Even after an ER nurse comes out and publishes the emergency, the cop, Officer Powell, holds up the ‘suspect,’ barring his entry into the hospital. The mother in law dies.

Everyone is apologetic afterwards. Dallas police. The cop. National news. Brian Williams shaking his head. Jay Leno probably doing jokes about it. But it is real life. Cops, like judges, like attorneys make mistake. Our justice system, well, that is one large mistake sometimes. This was one of those times.

That Dallas cop on that nite did more than exercise poor discretion. He stole a moment in time which can never be recaptured. Every son wants to be there when his mother in law dies. No, wait, seriously, god, I can’t resist a joke- seriously, this is a vivid example of when rigid rules clash with harsh realities.

It was a bad mistake, maybe by a good cop. I have no clue. But it goes a long way to teach community policing, seeing the community as a friend and neighbor. In this case, the detained suspect turns out to be an NFL football player. Maybe one the cop cheered for the Sunday before, watching a game with his son on TV.

Cops, too often disobeyed, develop jagged edges. They don’t want to hear anything. You become stupid. They become right. They own the street. You can hire a lawyer. Take your best shot. But in uniform, on the street, screw with them and you wind up facing the battery LEO, not them. They get exonerated. You get fried. Not this time, though. Cameras again capture injustice at work in the big city.

There are 80,000 stories in the Naked City. Thanks to You Tube, the Internet, cameras on dashboards, now you know about one more of them, shouting out “How can this happen?” Members of the jury, it does, everyday, anywhere, any place. It is our system, and like most systems, it breaks down more often than we would like.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/032609dnmetcopstop.3e9c080.html

SFL Reports Ripple Effect of Markus Trial Misconduct

Off the South Floriduh Lawyers' Blog today:

'Two federal prosecutors in Miami are being reassigned for their roles in the secret tape recording of a defense attorney and his investigator in a criminal case.

Court documents show that prosecutor Karen Gilbert voluntarily stepped down as chief of the Miami U.S. attorney's narcotics section. Prosecutor Sean Cronin asked to be transferred from the criminal division.

The U.S. attorney's office acknowledges serious mistakes in a decision to have witnesses tape conversations with defense lawyer David O. Markus and investigator Michael Graff. Markus wants a federal judge to order the government to pay his fees and costs because of the misconduct.

That's refreshing, huh?- SFL writes- We've had way too few of these moments from our federal government over the last few years. We could use some more.'

It would be nice. It would be nice.

Jailed Judges Corrupt Conduct May Overturn 1,000 Convictions

The corrupt Pennsylvania juvenile judges who are now doing jail time may wind up having a ripple and residual effect that is mind boggling. The NY Times is reporting, along with the ABA Journal, that maybe 12oo convictions are going to have to be overturned and vacated.

The ruling affects juvenile convictions between 2003 and 2008 in cases heard by the former president judge of Luzerne County, Mark Ciavarella Jr., reports the Associated Press. The AP put the number of juvenile convictions at issue perhaps in the hundreds, but the Philadelphia Inquirer reports they could total 1,200.

He and a judicial colleague pleaded guilty last month in criminal cases concerning some $2.6 million in kickbacks they allegedly accepted in exchange for sending juveniles to a detention facility then reportedly owned, in part, by an attorney, as discussed in earlier posts.

A special master is looking into the situation. The penalty for these judges should be Bart Simpson like. They should have to sit down and write in longhand an apology to every kid and every kid's family and every state attorney and parent whose rights they poisoned with their diabolical greed. But first maybe we should break their fingers.

My first blog about this was a month ago, and each new revelation is repulsive. These guys have so corrupted the justice system in Pennsylvania.........
http://browardlawblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/judges-jailed-in-juvenile-prison-scam.html

HERE IS A NY TIMES PIECE ON A BETTER WAY- MISSOURI STYLE
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/us/27juvenile.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Dominatrix Allegedly Ran $50M Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Just can't match what the ABA Journal ran today with Martha Neil so let me just excise those salient pieces which are juicy enough for anyone's Friday. Okay trivia fans, which movie was it with Richard Gere and the judge and the whips and the chains? Was it not 'And Justice For All?'

In the news last month when he complained that authorities had searched his law office, a Long Island criminal, matrimonial and real estate attorney now has additional trouble on his agenda.

Private practitioner George Guldi, 57, is accused of running, along with a dominatrix, her husband and two more New York lawyers, a $50 million mortgage scam that allegedly used straw buyers recruited from a fetish club to help dupe lenders into granting excessive mortgages, reports Newsday. When the mortgages weren't paid, the homes reportedly went into foreclosure.

Guldi is particularly well-known because he is a former Suffolk County legislator. He has now been criminally charged in what Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota describes as a "seven-year-long mortgage fraud spree" operated between 2002 and 2009 concerning dozens of upscale homes in the Hamptons, according to the newspaper and the Associated Press.

A lawyer representing Guldi, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree grand larceny and other charges in Southampton Village Justice Court, declined Newsday's request for comment. The newspaper says Guldi is accused of "act[ing] as the lawyer in dozens of fraudulent transactions that made him millions."

Prosecutors say another New York lawyer, 49-year-old Ethan Ellner, created fake titles that falsely claimed homes involved in the scam were free and clear of mortgages and other debt, Newsday reports. Thus, the straw buyers allegedly recruited with payments of $5,000 to $10,000 to overstate their incomes and pose as legitimate purchasers of expensive East End homes in the Town of Southampton were able to persuade banks to loan more on the homes than they were worth, according to the government.

Defendant Carrie Coakley, 38, who was featured in the 1998 documentary Whipped, and her husband, Donald MacPherson, 65, allegedly recruited straw buyers from among the clientele of their sexual fetish fantasy business, Arena Studios.

MacPherson is the publisher of the SoHo Journal, reports the East Hampton Star, in an article that provides additional background information about Guldi.

Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: "Prosecutors Seized All Files in My Law Office, NY Attorney Says"

Editorial Cartoon of the Day

When I heard about the problem about debris in space, I thought of Sputnick. I thought of the Space Program. I thought of Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn and Apollo, and those little capsules circling our planet. I thought of Astronauts and Cape Kennedy and Cape Canaveral and about how much I have been enraptured over the years in the Space Program, how I became friends with one or two astronauts, how I dreamed I could be them. Then I saw this cartoon. And I laughed and said, 'Only in America.' Only we can prevent forest fires, said Smokey the Bear to me growing up. Only we.

Your Daily Miami Beach Celebrity DUI Arrest

Painter and sculptor Romero Britto was arrested in Miami Beach early Thursday on drunken-driven charges, accused of finger painting at the wheel.

Police say they were drawn to the Brazilian-born artist's attentiton by the distinctive colors of his car above, when they saw it about 3 a.m. swerving between lanes, said Miami Beach Detective Jenny Velazquez, police spokeswoman.

In lieu of bond, Britto painted a new motif and design for the Dade County Jail, according to Miami-Dade Corrections spokeswoman Janelle Hall.

The artwork of Brazilian-born Britto can be found throughout Miami, which is distinctive for its bold colors and famous urinators who get drunk, drive, and piss all over the city. He has an art gallery on Lincoln Road. Last year he did a piece featuring Dontrelle Willis, the former Marlins pitcher also caught drinking and driving. Since then, Willis has not thrown a strike.

This piece has been given satirical license by the blogger.

AG Fighting Cyber Crime Fast and Loose With Public Funds

Beth Reinhard, great reporter for the Herald, opines today about the potential rivals in the next governor's race, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, feuding over the no-bid contract for his cybercrime campaign.

Wait, did we not just elect Charley Crist? And why don't the people we elect have their seats warm before we are talking about them running for something else? Anyway, all I am blogging about today is how power and influence greases the wheel and that is not the way it should be. In a sense, this is the point Howard Finkelstein was making in the last piece about the Chief's wife getting a better deal than others similarly situated.

So Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum wants to fight cyber crime. Good for him. I see his ads all over TV. So do you I am sure. But now I find out his noble public purpose is a vehicle to line green the pockets of a chief campain aide. What a bunch of crap that is. Seems that he has been doling out dollars to a consultant to run the ads using the 'no-bid' you be my good buddy system. Gracious, me. In our society? Shocking!

McCollum has already dropped about $1.4 million in state funds on public service ads about on-line predators, and he asked for Sink's ''continued support.'' She said she backs the message, not the method.

''I was disappointed to learn that you intend to continue your no-bid contract to Chris Mottola Consulting, instead of going through a competitive bidding process,'' Sink wrote in response. ``Also it is important to note that these funds are public funds -- they belong to Florida's taxpayers.''

Sink asked for more documentation on the contract but her office has said she can't stop payment if McCollum complies with state law. He called her actions ''hypocritical'' and accused her of standing in the way of public safety.

''This essential program's only purpose is to protect Florida's children,'' McCollum wrote back. ``CyberSafety is not a political issue -- our children's safety hangs in the balance.''

Bah Humbug. So much for nobility.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2009/03/bill-mccollums-550-make-up-kit.html

Plea Deal for Chief's Wife Still Going Back and Forth With Controversy

The Sun Sentinel generates more controversy today on the shooting case involving the wife of Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Franklin Adderly. The Tonya Alanyez piece drives home the point that there are two sentencing standards, one for the rich and another for the poor.

Here is the link-

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/fort_lauderdale/sfl-flbadderley0327sbmar27,0,2940183.story

As a defense attorney, your duty is not to apologize for the system. Your duty is to get your client the best deal. A defense lawyer, the NACDL argues, is liberty's last champion. But you first of all, are your client's most important advocate. We may work within a system which is far more unfair than it is just, but your duty is first to your client on the case before you.

If David Bogenshutz purportedly has the power and influence to shape an outcome more favorably for his client than a young public defender would for his, that may not be good for the system. But it is good for Mr. B and his client. And Mr. B's duty is first and foremost to the client retaining him. So while the Public Defender can advocate for a 'more better' and equal system as he should and must do, in the meantime if you can you go to the lawyer who will get you the best outcome. That is our job first and foremost, and we do not have to apologize for it.

One of the points that is made in the news piece has to be that justice is supposed to be color blind. But more than that, it is supposed to be gender neutral, economically equally, socially level, and overall, be fair to all regardless of pocketbook or power. That is what our community should strive for. That is what our public advocates must demand. Equal justice under the law. In the meantime, though, a defense attorney may not have the wherewithal at a given moment to turn the system around. He has but one person to answer to- his client.

Domestic violences crosses all social stratospheres. Maybe if this case serves a purpose it will be to insure that the State Attorney's office and courts fashion future remedies with the time, heart and consideration eventually to be meted out in the case involving the wife of the Chief of Police. Then we would be moving in the right direction together.

Snap! Your Tag is in the System

Scanners, can't even get them to work on a computer, and now here they are on Hollywood police cars. And all it does is snap a little picture of your license plate tag. The Sun Sentinel so reports today. Fascinating:

"These things are awesome," said Hollywood Police Lt. Scott Pardon, whose traffic unit, in just a few weeks, recovered one stolen car, one stolen tag and made two arrests.

I am beginning to think there is no such think as privacy anymore, so it is impossible to invade it. I do know this system is also used to help people find their vehicles when they lose them in airport, stadium and large shopping mall parking lots, like at Sawgrass Mills: "Oh, yes of course we know where your green chevrolet is, you do do, you parked in the blue lot on the south side, not the red lot on the north."

Related links
Graphic: How license plate scanners work

Police everywhere say it's an effective crime-fighting tool while allowing officers to multi-task. But privacy-rights groups take issue with authorities taking and storing information on noncriminals, something they say is too Big Brother-like."If I have never gotten a ticket or have never done anything wrong, I should have the right to know if the picture of my car is in the database, and what are they doing with it," said Lillie Coney, with the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center.

"It's not that they are looking at license plates and taking pictures of cars belonging to innocent people," said Barry Butin, co-counsel of the ACLU's Broward chapter. "We are more concerned with what they do with the information later."

Butin and others say there's a potential for misuse, such as an officer tracking a girlfriend, or police prying into the comings and goings of law-abiding citizens.In Aventura, police have been taking thousands of images and tag information since December. They say the information is stored permanently for possible use in future investigations. Punch in a tag and, if the scanner ever came across it, the system will indicate where and when.Plate recognition systems vary by vendor, but most work the same way: Once a camera shoots an image of a tag, the plate number is run through a constantly updated database of stolen cars and tags. A computer inside the cruiser alerts the officer when it finds a hit.

During a recent demonstration, Aventura Police Officer John Methvin drove around the Aventura Mall parking lot, zipping through three tags a second as his car slowly cruised the aisles. His cruiser has three sets of cameras mounted on the roof. He processes about 2,000 tags a day, most of them at the mall.A laptop computer plays a steady beat of "clicks" after each picture is taken. Suddenly, an alarm alerts Methvin to a "possible stolen car.""I get this one every time I drive by here," he said. It's a mall employee whose Florida plate has letters and numbers that match a stolen car from Canada.

The Broward Sheriff's Office, which covers 14 cities including Pompano Beach, Tamarac and Cooper City, has 35 license plate recognition systems mounted on patrol cars and at fixed locations throughout the county, scanning an average of 300,000 plates a month, said spokesman Mike Jachles. The department has been using the system about a year.

Many departments say the goal is to have all agencies share the same information. Police emphasize the scanning system does not run a full background check on every tag. That would overload the database system, they said. "It's a crime-fighting tool used to find violent offenders or violent criminals. This is not Big Brother watching," Jachles said. "We're not looking for expired tags, or things like that. If we did, we would be too busy to do other things."

Does anyone really believe this is not the mother of all database systems designed to garner and store as much information as is possibly useful later on down the road? Who are we kidding?

Anna Nicole Back to the Future

Prosecutors are poised to re-open the investigation into the death of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith.

The move comes after Smith’s former lawyer, Howard K. Stern, and two of her doctors, were charged with conspiring to provide her with thousands of prescription drugs over the three-year period up to her death in 2007.

The charges were brought in California, where Smith lived for much of her adult life.But now authorities in Florida, where Smith died of a massive drugs overdose at the Seminole Hard Rock Resort in Hollywood, have met with their counterparts in California.

Ron Ishoy, spokesman for State Attorney Mike Satz, intimated that the Florida death investigation could be re-opened.

“Our prosecutors have met with representatives of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the California Department of Justice and discussed the evidence they have turned up in their investigation. We are now examining that evidence to see where it might lead in relation to Ms Smith’s death here in Broward County in 2007.”

This is music for CNN's ears. Another showdown in Fort Lauderdale. 'Bring back Larry' cheers are echoing the courthouse cafeteria as I blog.

Stern and the doctors, Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich, face 11 charges, relating to the supply of prescription drugs.It is alleged they were often prescribed for no legitimate medical purpose. Should have given her pot. California Attorney General Jerry Brown has described Stern as Smith’s “principal enabler.”

Stern was the most famous member of Smith’s entourage. He even claimed, falsely, to be the father of her newborn daughter, Dannielynn. Stern was buying a boat in Miami Beach when Smith died but had been staying in her suite at the Hard Rock. Smith died months after the death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, of a similar drug overdose in the Bahamas. Other than Smith, Stern was the only other person in the room when he died.

Frankly, my blog in this is simple. The whole damn family was crazy, whacked, drug induced. I give Seidlin some credit. He got it right. The only sane one may be the dude he gave the kid to. I don't even the remember the name, what was it? You know, the blonde haired guy who showed up with the child on Larry King? Larry Birkhead? He was like the Kato Kaelin of this mess. Send 'em all packing. Keep them from Broward. I don't want to see 'Millstein,', 'Texas,' or any of the cast of characters that reduced Broward to a daily comedy show.

Barney Makes Waves With Frank Talk About 'Homomphobic' Justice Scalia

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., called Justice Antonin Scalia a "homophobe" when commenting on the possibility of a case involving gay marriages reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.

In an interview with the gay website 365gay.com, Frank was questioned about legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, FOX News reports. The 1996 law says the federal government and states have no obligation to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where they are legal.

"At some point, [the Defense of Marriage Act] is going to have to go to the United States Supreme Court," said Frank, who is gay. "I wouldn't want it to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has got too many votes on this current court."

Gays have criticized Scalia for his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, in which the majority struck down a law barring sodomy, according to the Catholic News Service. Scalia said the majority decision represented "a massive disruption of the current social order."

So who is going to be the first to file the Bar Complaint against Barney Frank for intemperate conduct disrespectful to a jurist? Just askin.... Is truth a defense, though? If so, then it speaks for itself that he has a built in defense.

Judge Richards Breaks Up Fight As He Pole Jumps to the Rescue

You must go to the Video Link First !!!

http://cbs4.com/local/John.Reasee.Judge.2.966837.html

Pole Vaulter and attorney James Pedley would be proud of Broward County's newest judicial hero, who makes CNN about 30 days into his tenure as a jurist. And with a move Mickey Rourke would be fond of. Broward Judge Ian Richards jumps the bench to help a woman being attacked by domestic violence suspect. Now playing nationally on CNN.

Some quick thinking and quick action by a Broward County judge was caught on courtroom surveillance video when a domestic violence suspect tried to attack a woman in court.

According to BSO officials, John Reasee, 29, was appearing before Judge Ian Richards in courtroom 5810 at the main Broward County courthouse in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday morning when he apparently realized he didn't want to be taken into custody. Reasee was standing next to his attorney at a courtroom podium.

His alleged victim, Nicole Word, was standing next to her attorney on the other side of the podium. When Judge Richards decided that he was going to remand Reasee into custody for violating the terms of his pre-trial release, he pulled away from the Bailiff and attacked Word, who in turn, ran next to the Judge's bench.

Two court deputies quickly jumped into action to restrain Reasee, just as the Judge pushed the courtroom panic alarm and jumped off his bench to separate and protect Word from Reasee. Several Lauderhill police officers, who were in the hallway outside the courtroom at the time, intervened and helped the Bailiff restrain Reasee without further incident.

Reasee, who was charged with domestic violence, now faces new charges of resisting arrest and stupidity in the first degree. No bond for this guy now. Serious incarceration. Danger to the community and all that. But not to Super Judge. Expect an appearance on Letterman by Friday.

Looks like Seidlin's 15 minutes are gone. Welcome our new Judicial Super Hero . Ian Richards.
Young, in shape, and America's Newest Judicial Idol. If this dude had tried this in front of Judge Thomas Coker, I am thinking he takes out his .357 magnum and fires off a couple of rounds....

Family Law Section Plans All Day Affair Friday

Broward County Bar Association Family Law Section

presents

RAISING THE BAR FAMILY LAW SEMINAR

FRIDAY, March 27, 2009

8:30 am - 3:30 pm

Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Hotel

1617 Southeast 17th Street,

Ft. Laud. FL 33316

PRESENTERS AND AGENDA

8:30 - 9:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:10 - 9:40

Judge Renee W. Goldenberg

Parenting Plans - Five Months Later

9:40 - 10:10

Judge Arthur M. Birken
Common Mistakes
10:10 - 10:40

Judge Linda L. Vitale

Current Procedures and Expectations in Chambers

10:40 - 11:10

Judge Marina Garcia-Wood

Hot Practice Tips

11:10 - 11:40

Russ Adler, Esq., Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler

Cutting Edge Software for the Future

11:40 - 12:00

Judge Renee Goldenberg, Suzie Higgins, Suzanne Ferriss and Lesley Kleiner

Stretch and Relieve Stress At Your Desk

12:00 - 1:30 LUNCH /

Table Topics:
Core Procedures and Problem Solving

1:30 - 1:50 Judge Eileen M. O'ConnorDomestic Violence and Related Issues
1:50 - 2:30

Judge Lisa Porter;
Judge Guiseppina Miranda;

Donald Gelin, Office of the General Counsel, Broward Sheriff's Office; and,

Emilio Benetiz, Esq.Dependency Practice and Procedure in Family Courts

2:30 - 2:40

AFTERNOON COFFEE
2:40- 2:55

Judge Susan F. Greenhawt,

Katherine Birnbaum, Esq.,

Kirschbaum, Birnbaum, Lippman & Gregoire, PLLC, and

Ken Gordon, Esq., Brinkley, Morgan, Solomon, Tatum, Stanley & Lunny, LLP

Private Judging and Special Magistrates

2:55- 3:30

General Magistrates,
Surprise Presentation

A surprise presentation? Like Vic Tobin shows up in drag? This should be special

'Play Ball' As Miami Votes for Stadium

Hey Norman Braman. You lost. Get over it.

Time to play ball in Miami. Real Stadium. Real City. Real international Community.

I am moving at once. Broward Law Blog, my ass. New name. South Florida Law Blog.

Working on it. Changing my name. Normandito from here on in.

Wait I blogged on this already. My love for baseball surpasses anything else:

http://browardlawblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/editorial-cartoon-of-day-florida.html

As for my good buddy, former sportswriter Michael Mayo, writing ever so accurately in today's Sun Sentinel, hell thanks Mikie for bursting my bubble and ruining my day.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/baseball/marlins/sfl-flbmayocol032409sbmar24,0,6386021.column

But how true you be in your notes.

How much so many of us will follow your way.

To the couch, then. Bring the beer, chips and remote!

In Lieu of a China Closet, Will a Coke Cabinet Do?

A humorous piece off the ABA Blog this past weekend. Molded cocaine as dinner servings. Not what I think Rick Steves' has in mind when the Travel Host displays Austrian dinnerware in European capitols. Or what mom had in mind when she saved all the good dishes in the dining room in something called a China Closet, which was God's way of saying we only touch the stuff there on holidays.

Remember the scene in Traffic in which Catherine Zeta-Jones, playing the wife of an imprisoned dealer, negotiates an exclusive deal to provide a Mexican druglord with seeming toys manufactured from cocaine? As the druglord watches, she dissolves a toy and sets up a line of coke, but refuses to partake because she's pregnant.

Such drug-dealing might have seemed a bit fantastic when the critically acclaimed movie was released in 2000. But it was based on reality then, according to the Los Angeles Times. And it's apparently becoming commonplace now, according to the London Times.

Spanish authorities recently seized a 44-pound dinner service in which all 42 of the plates, bowls, cups, saucers and other pieces were made of compressed cocaine, the British newspaper reports.

Grandma's chicken soup would sure have a new flavor.

Another enterprising drug-smuggling effort foiled by Spanish police several weeks ago involved a 66-year-old Chilean man wearing a "cast" made of cocaine, the Times writes.

His leg was in fact broken, X-rays showed, and, a police spokesman says, “investigators are examining the possibility that these injuries were brought about voluntarily ... to facilitate trafficking through security checks.” No word yet if he tried to snort his leg.

Nothing new here for people working in Miami customs for years. I mean, from people swallowing it to shipping it to hiding it in 2 by 4's, we could do a book on the best ways to hide coke. Actually the best thing to do is hide from it. Not good for you. Or your freedom.

Editorial Cartoon of the Day

US Supreme Court Should Toss Strip Search of Teen

The NY Times is reporting today that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear its big strip search case on April 21. The High Court will review a lower court ruling that school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old Arizona girl when they strip searched her based on a classmate’s uncorroborated accusation that she possessed ibuprofen. I theenk theese case is an outrageous abuse of school district powers.

The matter, Redding v. Safford Unified School District, was appealed from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which found the strip search to be unconstitutional. A six-judge majority of the appeals court further held that the school official who ordered the search is not entitled to immunity as a result of his actions.

Savana Redding, an eighth grade honor roll student at Safford Middle School in Safford, Arizona, was pulled from class on October 8, 2003 by the school’s vice principal, Kerry Wilson. Earlier that day, Wilson had discovered prescription-strength ibuprofen - 400 milligram pills equivalent to two over-the-counter ibuprofen pills, such as Advil - in the possession of Redding’s classmate.

Under questioning and faced with punishment, the classmate claimed that Redding had given her the pills. 2003? By now, she could have graduated college and found a teaching job.

In the school nurse’s office, Redding was ordered to strip to her underwear. She was then commanded to pull her bra out and to the side, exposing her breasts, and to pull her underwear out at the crotch, exposing her pelvic area. The strip search failed to uncover any ibuprofen pills.

This is galling. The strip search was undertaken based solely on the uncorroborated claims of the classmate facing punishment. No attempt was made to corroborate the classmate’s accusations among other students or teachers. No physical evidence suggested that Redding might be in possession of ibuprofen pills or that she was concealing them in her undergarments. Furthermore, the classmate had not claimed that Redding currently possessed any pills, nor had the classmate given any indication as to where they might be concealed. No attempt was made to contact Redding’s parents prior to conducting the strip search. The Supreme Court does not normally uphold a lot of what they do out here in the Ninth Circuit, my second home. This case should be the exception.

Additional information on the case, including that ACLU’s legal filings and the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, is available at: www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/search/35964prs20080711.html

Today's NY Times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/us/24savana.html?th&emc=th

Jax Lawyer Jacks System for 700K of SPD Funds

And you think Chris Roberts had a problem? Since July, a Jacksonville lawyer has billed Florida taxpayers nearly $700,000 with questionable invoices that reflect an impossible workload, according to the agency that pays private attorneys appointed to represent indigent defendants.

At $90 an hour, David Taylor billed the state for more than 24 hours of work on two dozen separate days in 2008, a Justice Administrative Commission audit showed last month, including 42 hours in one day. He has billed for more than 16 hours on at least 100 more days, the commission said. Now he is selling real estate and apparently swampland in the Glades. Look at the picture above.

Questions about Taylor's sworn invoices led commissioners on Feb. 24 to cancel his contracts for court-appointed cases and challenge his invoices in court. The agency called his billing excessive, duplicative and more than twice that of the next highest paid court-appointed lawyer in Florida, who unlike Taylor exclusively handles first-degree murder cases in Miami.

"We just have no confidence in the accuracy of the billing," commission attorney Stephen Presnell testified in a Jacksonville hearing. Based on commission records, Presnell called Taylor the "highest-paid attorney in Florida."

This story from the Jacksonville paper,

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-03-22/story/how_much_is_this_lawyer_costing_us

reminds me of a cartoon from the New Yorker. A young lawyer passes in an accident and shows up to the gates of St. Peter seeking admittance, and is asked his age: '35,' he replies.

'But that cannot be,' says St. Peter, 'based on your billing records alone, you have to be at least 68 years old.'

I think that is how many years this guy is going to get. I guess this is why we did away with SPD appointments, which greased so many for so long. Still, somewhere between SPD and Conflict Counsel, there is a better medium which serves the public interest. What we have now is ineffective, unfair, and counter productive. We are not only not serving the poor; we are hurting them. It is not that we have non feasance, we have mastered malfeasance.

Federal Sentencing of Medical Dispensary Owner Postponed by Judge

Great news from Los Angeles...

A federal judge here Monday postponed the sentencing of a man convicted of running a medical marijuana dispensary and asked the Department of Justice to clarify its revised position on such cases.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.said last week that federal authorities would not seek to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries if the operations complied with state and local laws, a departure from the Bush administration policy that federal narcotics laws held sway. California is one of 13 states that allow the growth and sales of medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

“The judge said this statement raises more questions than it answers,” said Reuven Cohen, a lawyer for the defendant, Charles Lynch. “He said he needed an explanation, and he needed it from the Department of Justice, not the local prosecutor.”

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the United States attorney in Los Angeles, said that he could not comment on the specifics of the request by Judge George H. Wu, but that prosecutors “do believe that Mr. Lynch violated state law.”

Last August, a jury convicted Mr. Lynch on five counts related to running a dispensary and selling medical marijuana to customers under 21, considered minors under a federal statute that prohibits the sale of marijuana and other narcotics to minors. Mr. Lynch faces a minimum sentence of five years in federal prison.

The case has been widely followed by medical marijuana advocates since Mr. Lynch was arrested after a 2007 raid on his dispensary in Morro Bay, Calif.

“He’s scared,” Mr. Cohen said of Mr. Lynch. “He’s an engineer with no criminal record. In a million years, he never thought that this is where he’d be.”

Prosecutors convicted Mr. Lynch under federal statutes last summer. The issue of state law was barred from being raised in the trial, Mr. Cohen said. Here is my post about the situation a few weeks ago on The Kent Vent....

http://kentvent.blogspot.com/2009/02/no-oscar-for-citizens-protesting-unjust.html