Posted on July 15, 2011 in Uncategorized

"This is a Defamation case that was filed only a couple of months ago; it is brand new. If the case survives the motions to dismiss, I assume it will be 2 or 3 years before it is over. There are many, many defendants and once they learn who the lawyer is who I will hire as the Attorney of Record, they will almost certainly engage in character assassination of that person and attempt to ruin that lawyer's reputation on the Internet. I do not know for a fact that this will happen, but I believe that it is a possibility."

That's from the Craigslist ad that might well be Joseph Rakofsky looking for new counsel now that his "associate" Richard Borzouye has jumped ship on Rakofsky v. Internet.

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 Posted on July 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

(a) A person commits an offense who, in a public place and with intent to cause public annoyance or alarm:

(1) Engages in fighting or in violent or threatening behavior;

(2) Refuses to obey an official order to disperse issued to maintain public safety in dangerous proximity to a fire, hazard or other emergency; or

(3) Creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act that serves no legitimate purpose.

(b) A person also violates this section who makes unreasonable noise that prevents others from carrying on lawful activities.

Tennessee Code 39-17-305.

Does this look like probable cause to you?:Nashville Airport Arrest Affidavit

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 Posted on July 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

We're back from our trip to and around the East Coast-about 6,000 miles on the highway, a riskier mode of travel than taking sixty-seven random airline flights would have been in 2001. Do I feel justified in putting my family in such terrible danger? Let's review some of the TSA news while we were gone.

Our friends at the TSA have been busy. The day that we left, TSA Administrator John Pistole told Congress that the agency had "changed the policy to say that there'll be repeated efforts made to resolve that without a pat-down." That might be nice, in a limited way, except that the American people can't believe a word that Pistole says; the following clip is from 15 November 2010:

Flash forward to 22 June 2011; the same day that Pistole is lying to Congress, saying that TSA has changed its policy with regard to children, while the Bennetts are heading to Memphis up US-59, TSA goons are groping a six-year-old on his way to DisneyLand. (Napoleon's Third Rule of Infantry Combat applies.)

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 Posted on June 13, 2011 in Uncategorized

Tannebaum wrote in No One Would Like My Commentary On The Casey Anthony Case about lawyers taking advantage of the "press frenzy" to get their faces on TV:

Some of the "reporting" by the local Orlando media is disgraceful. No one cares about fair trials anymore, it's all about the opinions, the "bombshells," and the guessing about what a jury will believe. Few of the commentators have ever tried a death penalty case, but no one asks, nor cares.Of course I have opinions about the case, about what I see going on in court. But this is not theatre, this is not a punching bag for the local defense bar to hit throughout the day. Have some damn dignity, let the trial go on – tell the media that you will not be a part of the frenzy. You walk the halls of the criminal justice system and using a life or death moment for your own fame is indefensible.You want to educate the public – do that. Do not use the time or microphone and camera to play contrarian to your brother of the bar just to gain favor with the vultures of the media that have already decided that the defendant is guilty.

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 Posted on June 12, 2011 in Uncategorized

In trial, credibility is everything. If the jury believes the criminal-defense lawyer, the defendant has a fighting chance even in the face of evidence that is on its face strong; if the jury thinks the criminal-defense lawyer is a liar, the defendant is doomed even if the facts against him appear weak.

So there is a certain logic to Orlando criminal-defense lawyer Jose Baez asking for a mistrial because evidence had been admitted that disparaged his character. The evidence in question? Jail telephone recordings of his client talking to her family members about him:

In a conversation on July 25, 2008, Casey Anthony's brother told his jailed sister that Baez's number one priority is himself."Understand your rights in this.... If at any point you want to change jockeys in this horse race, you can do it...it's as simple as you reaching out to anyone in the Corrections Department...and make it known on what you want to do," Lee Anthony advised his sister....Her brother asked her in one jailhouse interview how she came to hire him."It kind of happened at random in booking," Casey Anthony told her parents according to jailhouse tape that was played at her trial. "I heard a couple of people talking about attorneys...His name came up and I said if he's good, can you do me a favor and pass my name along...It was an inmate and there was three other people that confirmed it."Casey Anthony's parents, George and Cindy Anthony, also expressed concern over her choice of a lawyer. George Anthony questioned Jose Baez's motives on a taped conversation with his daughter from Aug. 3, 2008."I just, I hope that the compassion that he says that he has is being genuine...I hope he's not building a reputation for himself," George Anthony said.

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 Posted on June 11, 2011 in Uncategorized

When Norm Pattis was being real, I enjoyed reading him even when he and I fought. But I confess that I have had little interest in his writings since he hired a marketer to rebrand him and his blog. Norm is no longer being real.

Norm is a fighter, but on his blog he picks at people passive-aggressively, referring to other bloggers without naming or linking to them, and even posting confrontational posts and then later removing them while disclaiming any interest in fighting. Opinion written with an eye to marketing, no matter how artfully framed, has little interest to me, and Norm's marketer seems to have rebranded him from a legendary picker of fights and thrower of bombs to the chief cheerleader of a kinder, gentler (or at least less candidly combative) blawgosphere-The Happysphere. And so Norm's blog dropped off my "must-read" list.

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 Posted on June 10, 2011 in Uncategorized

Too good to keep to myself, from Brazoria County criminal-defense lawyer Jeff Purvis:

This tip comes courtesy of my fellow Brazoria County lawyer, David Sharp. How many times have we all worked out a sweetheart deal for some 3 time ex-con charged with a 3rd degree or better felony only to communicate the offer and be met with, "Why can't I get me a 12.44(a)? E're body in my pod gots one. You ain't workin for me." In the past, I've tried explaining prosecutorial discretion, the purpose of the law, and it's application to SJF's. But today, David suggested an alternative response. If should go something like this: CLIENT: [demanding] you need to get me a 12.44(a). LAWYER: [spoken with an affect of incredulity] you want to register as a homosexual? CLIENT: [expressing surprise] huh? LAWYER: [displaying indifference] yeah, that's what 12.44(a) means. You have to register as a homosexual. I guess I can get that for you if that's you thing, but I don't recommend it. I plan on trying this out at my very next opportunity. -Jeff

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 Posted on June 03, 2011 in Uncategorized

From the transcript of the hearing on Dontrell Deaner's request to fire Joseph Rakofsky from Deaner's criminal case:

It was apparent to the Court that there was a-not a good grasp of legal principles and legal procedure of what was admissibIe and what was not admissible that inured, I think, to the detriment of Mr. Deaner. And had there been-If there had been a conviction in this case, based on what I had seen so far, I would have granted a motion for a new trial under 23.110.

From D.C. Criminal Code 23.110:

(a) A prisoner in custody under sentence of the Superior Court claiming the right to be released upon the ground that (1) the sentence was imposed in violation of the Constitution of the United States or the laws of the District of Columbia, (2) the court was without jurisdiction to impose the sentence, (3) the sentence was in excess of the maximum authorized by law, (4) the sentence is otherwise subject to collateral attack, may move the court to vacate, set aside, or correct the sentence.

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 Posted on June 03, 2011 in Uncategorized

Joel Rosenberg, father, husband, science-fiction writer, second-amendment advocate, habitué of the blawgoshphere, rouser of rabble, outspoken critic of police misconduct, and all-around fearless proponent of what he knew to be right, has died.

I will miss him.

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 Posted on May 26, 2011 in Uncategorized

I was otherwise occupied, and didn't write about this at the time, but nobody I follow did either, so I figure it's worth a small post:

When TSA let three boxcutters through security at JFK and onto an airplane,

[TSA] Spokeswoman Davis was quick to put the embarrassing incident behind her, assuring the traveling public that the TSA is still ahead of the curve:

There have been a number of additional security layers that have been implemented on aircraft that would prevent someone from causing harm with box cutters.

They include the possible presence of armed federal air marshals, hardened cockpit doors, flight crews trained in self-defense and a more vigilant traveling public who have demonstrated a willingness to intervene.

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