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Ruling favors suspected Calif. gang members
Legal Business |
2011/05/11 09:20
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div class=entrydiv class=articleAuthorities in California's Orange County violated the constitutional rights of dozens of suspected gang members when they enforced a gang injunction without giving them a chance to defend themselves in court, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank's ruling favors those who challenged a temporary gang injunction issued in February 2009, notifying suspected members of the Orange Varrio Cypress gang that they will be barred from associating in public, wearing gang clothing or being out late at night within a roughly 4-square-mile area of Orange.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California sued, arguing that when some 60 people challenged their inclusion in the temporary injunction prosecutors removed their names. Those people were nonetheless named in the permanent injunction.
Fairbank ruled that the action violated those people's rights to defend against allegations that they have gang affiliations. She ordered police and prosecutors not to enforce the injunction against them.
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Ex-Georgia bank exec to be sentenced for fraud
Legal Business |
2011/05/11 09:20
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div class=entrydiv class=articleA former Georgia bank executive who pleaded guilty to using customers and family members in a multimillion-dollar fraud conspiracy that led to his bank's downfall is scheduled to be sentenced to prison.
Randy Jones could face at least 12 years in prison on Wednesday when he is sentenced in federal court. Three others who have pleaded guilty to conspiring with Jones are also set to be sentenced.
Jones, 50, pleaded guilty in January to receiving kickbacks for real estate loans while he was an executive vice president at Community Bank amp; Trust, the failed Cornelia-based bank where he worked for 30 years.
The hearing started Tuesday but attorneys spent the day in court arguing over how much restitution Jones should pay and how much time he could face behind bars.
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RI lawyer confirmed as US judge; GOP block fails
Legal Business |
2011/05/06 03:43
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A trial lawyer nominated by President Barack Obama to be a federal judge in Rhode Island was confirmed on a party-line vote Wednesday just hours after a Senate GOP filibuster attempt failed.
The Senate voted 50-44 to confirm lawyer John McConnell to the bench after a more significant 63-33 tally to advance the nomination past a filibuster orchestrated by GOP leaders.
Eleven Republicans joined with Democrats in the earlier vote to break the filibuster. GOP leaders opposed McConnell, citing his record as a trial lawyer in cases against businesses. Republicans also said McConnell was less than truthful in his testimony to the Senate.
Wednesday's vote comes six years after the Republicans then in control of the Senate considered a change in procedures to make it impossible to filibuster judicial nominations, citing numerous Democratic efforts to stall former President George W. Bush's nominees. Democrats said Republicans were being hypocritical in now trying to filibuster a Democratic nominee. |
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Court for Fla. woman charged in husband's NY death
Legal Business |
2011/05/05 03:44
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Federal prosecutors have been turning up the heat on a Florida woman accused of arranging the 2009 killings of her millionaire husband and mother-in-law.
Narcy Novack of Fort Lauderdale and her brother, Cristobal Veliz of Brooklyn, N.Y., are due in court Friday morning for a status conference.
Novack and Veliz are accused of hiring others to kill Ben Novack in his New York hotel room and Bernice Novack in her Florida home.
Last month, the government added the mother-in-law's killing to the charges against Novack and Veliz. And a prosecutor said another charge — which carries the possibility of the death penalty — may be in store.
Defense attorneys suggested the prosecution was trying to force a guilty plea.
Ben Novack's father built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, Fla. |
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