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Motion to bar Montana, Idaho wolf hunts denied
Court Watch News |
2011/08/24 10:17
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A federal appeals court on Thursday denied a request by environmental groups to halt wolf hunts that are scheduled to begin next week in Idaho and Montana.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and other groups. The groups were seeking to cancel the hunts while the court considers a challenge to congressional action in April that stripped wolves of federal protections in Montana and Idaho, and in parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula reluctantly upheld a budget rider that was inserted by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. It marked the first time since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 that Congress forcibly removed protections from a plant or animal.
Molloy ruled that the way Congress went about removing endangered species protections from the Northern Rockies gray wolf undermined the rule of law but did not violate the Constitution. Meanwhile, the environmental groups argued Congress' actions were unconstitutional because they violated the principle of separation of powers. |
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ACLU sues feds for shackling immigrant detainees
Court Watch News |
2011/08/20 09:01
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The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court seeking to stop a practice in which alleged illegal immigrants are shackled at the feet, waist and wrists while appearing in immigration court.
The groups allege in the suit filed Monday that a blanket policy that allows the immigrants to remain chained for up to 12 hours the day they're due in court violates constitutional bans against cruel and unusual punishment.
According to the lawsuit, the overwhelming majority of prisoners who show up in immigration courts have no violent criminal history. The lawsuit seeks to compel the Department of Homeland Security to make individual determinations about shackling rather than have a blanket policy. DHS officials declined to comment Wednesday.
The lawsuit applies only to immigrants appearing in San Francisco immigration courts. But attorneys who filed the lawsuit said Wednesday that they hope it prompts changes to the system in other cities.
We'd like to convince them to follow their own policy and at least add some humanity to it and recognize it's a painful and hurtful thing to shackle people like that, said Paul Chavez, senior attorney for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, one of the groups who filed the lawsuit.
The groups allege that shackling everyone at an immigration hearing amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The lawsuit seeks class action status to represent prisoners transported to and appearing in immigration court in shackles in San Francisco. |
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Man found guilty in Atlanta of killing boxer
Court Watch News |
2011/08/17 09:28
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A Fulton County jury has found DeMario Ware guilty of felony murder and other charges in the shooting of former world champion boxer Vernon Forrest.
The jury acquitted Ware on a malice murder charge.
The 22-year-old Ware did not fire the gun that killed the 38-year-old welterweight, but was charged with malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery and aggravated assault. He could be sentenced to life in prison.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that in a police interview played for the jury, Ware admitted pointing a loaded gun at Forrest on the night of July 25, 2009, and taking the boxer's gold championship ring and Rolex watch. Police say Forrest chased Ware but failed to catch him and wound up being shot to death by Charman Sinkfield, one of Ware's codefendants. |
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Lawyer pleads guilty to illegal Edwards donations
Court Watch News |
2011/08/06 09:14
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A prominent Los Angeles attorney could face six months in federal prison for making illegal contributions to the 2004 presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards.
The U.S. attorney's office says Pierce O'Donnell pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of making illegal campaign contributions and agreed to a six-month sentence and a $20,000 fine. O'Donnell is set to be sentenced in November.
In a statement, O'Donnell's attorney Brian J. O'Neill says he and O'Donnell are pleased with the resolution.
O'Donnell acknowledged he provided some $20,000 to Edwards' campaign for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination by reimbursing straw donors.
In 2006, O'Donnell was ordered to pay more than $155,000 after pleading no contest to using a false name while making political contributions to former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn's campaign. |
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Mo. court rejects challenge to land tax credits
Court Watch News |
2011/08/03 08:46
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A developer promising a multi-billion dollar makeover for impoverished north St. Louis won a legal battle Tuesday as the Missouri Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a state law directing tens of millions of dollars of tax credits toward his project.
The seven-member Supreme Court was divided in its reasoning but united in the ultimate result of its ruling, which secures state financing for the developer to assemble and maintain large swaths of land. Eventually, Paul McKee's NorthSide Regeneration LLC wants to build 10,000 homes and millions of square feet of office space in a two-square-mile area north of downtown St. Louis.
A lawsuit by two local residents took issue with a 2007 state law enacted with McKee's project in mind. That law authorizes up to $95 million of tax credits to offset part of the cost of buying and maintaining large amounts of property in impoverished areas. NorthSide Regeneration so far has received about $28 million in tax credits.
Tax credits reduce the amount of state income tax owed by a taxpayer. The lawsuit claimed the credits were similar to getting cash from the state and thus violated the Missouri Constitution by granting public money to a private person or corporation. A Cole County judge ruled against the plaintiffs in March 2010 and the case was appealed to the state Supreme Court. |
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Fresno DA charges woman after deadly bus crash
Court Watch News |
2011/07/20 09:24
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A woman accused of providing alcohol to a teenage driver who caused a deadly Greyhound bus crash has been charged with a misdemeanor, officials said Tuesday.
Michelle Kay Cole, 22, was charged with purchasing an alcoholic beverage for a person under 21 resulting in death, Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth Egan said at a news conference.
Cole was cited Monday but not arrested, Egan said. She could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.
A California Highway Patrol report placed sole blame for the crash on 18-year-old Sylvia Garay. Investigators said she was drunk when her SUV hit a concrete barrier and overturned on Highway 99 on July 22, 2010.
The oncoming bus, carrying 31 passengers on a route from Los Angeles to Sacramento, struck the SUV, skidded into a concrete center divider, then tumbled down a 15-foot embankment and plowed into a eucalyptus tree shortly after 2 a.m. a few miles from downtown Fresno.
Garay, her two passengers and three people on the bus were killed. Authorities say Garay had a blood alcohol level of .11 when she died. The legal limit is .08.
The CHP report said the bus driver had no way to avoid the SUV, which was left without lights when it overturned. |
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Ex-CEO convicted in scam at auto-chemical company
Court Watch News |
2011/07/20 09:23
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A former corporate executive officer of a New York-based automotive-chemical company was convicted Tuesday in a multimillion-dollar investor fraud scheme that enabled him to buy expensive jewelry and take private jets.
A jury in Manhattan state Supreme Court found Cleveland lawyer James Margulies guilty of charges including grand larceny and scheme to defraud. He faces up to 25 years on the top two counts, which could run consecutively. Bail was set at $1.5 million.
Ira London, an attorney for Margulies, said he planned to file a very vigorous appeal.
The jury has spoken. I believe they have convicted an innocent man, he said.
While serving as the company's finance chief — and briefly as CEO — of Industrial Enterprises of America, Inc., from 2004 to 2008, Margulies illegally issued millions of shares of stock to friends and relatives, inflating the share price by making the company look more profitable than it was, prosecutors said.
A teachers' pension fund in Ohio and a church were among the victims of the scheme, prosecutors said.
Margulies personally reaped more than $7 million, spending it on lavish luxuries such as a $350,000 diamond ring for his wife from jeweler Harry Winston, prosecutors said.
He also paid more than a million dollars on the mortgage of his first home, bought a second home and spent $500,000 on a vacation club membership, prosecutors said.
Margulies was charged in the scheme in 2010 along with John D. Mazzuto, who pleaded guilty Jan. 14 to his role in issuing fraudulent shares of stock. |
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