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Guilty plea in Wash. shooting spree that killed 6
Headline Legal News |
2009/11/18 17:59
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A man who killed six people, including a sheriff's deputy, in a northwest Washington shooting rampage last year pleaded guilty Tuesday and will spend the rest of his life in a mental hospital or prison. Isaac Zamora entered the pleas to 18 charges, including aggravated murder, attempted murder and burglary, after prosecutor Rich Weyrich agreed he would not seek the death penalty. "Mr. Zamora won't ever walk the streets again," Weyrich said. "From a public safety standpoint, we've accomplished that." Zamora, 29, began his rampage Sept. 2, 2008, near the town of Alger, 70 miles north of Seattle, and continued it on Interstate 5. Described by his family as mentally disturbed, he was captured after a police chase and later told investigators he killed for God. The dead included a man who had accused Zamora of trespassing, a woman who lived nearby, two construction workers, a motorist on the highway, and Skagit County Deputy Sheriff Anne Jackson. Jackson had frequently tried to help Zamora's family deal with his mental illness, Zamora's mother said.
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Obama administration: Toss wiretap lawsuit
Headline Legal News |
2009/11/02 17:39
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Attorney General Eric Holder says a lawsuit in San Francisco over warrantless wiretapping threatens to expose ongoing intelligence work and must be thrown out.
In making the argument, the Obama administration agreed with the Bush administration's position on the case but insists it came to the decision differently. A civil liberties group criticized the move Friday as a retreat from promises President Barack Obama made as a candidate.
Holder's effort to stop the lawsuit marks the first time the administration has tried to invoke the state secrets privilege under a new policy it launched last month designed to make such a legal argument more difficult.
Under the state secrets privilege, the government can have a lawsuit dismissed if hearing the case would jeopardize national security.
The Bush administration invoked the privilege numerous times in lawsuits over various post-9/11 programs, but the Obama administration recently announced that only a limited number of senior Justice Department officials would be able to make such decisions. It also agreed to provide confidential information to the courts in such cases.
Under the new approach, an agency trying to keep such information secret would have to convince the attorney general and a panel of Justice Department lawyers that its release would compromise national security.
Holder said that in the current case, that review process convinced him "there is no way for this case to move forward without jeopardizing ongoing intelligence activities that we rely upon to protect the safety of the American people."
The lawsuit was filed by a group of individuals who claimed the government illegally monitored their communications. To proceed with the case, Holder said, would expose intelligence sources and methods. | | Page rank | | |
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Nokia’s lawsuit against Apple over iPhone likely a negotiating tactic over licensing fees
Headline Legal News |
2009/10/26 16:33
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CrunchGear's Jeremy Kessel recnetly spoke with "Barry L. Cohen, Esq.,who specializes in commercial and business litigation and intellectualproperty litigation and licensing at Thorp Reed & Armstrong,[regarding] his thoughts on the Nokia v. Apple matter at large.According to Mr. Cohen, because Nokia has been successful in licensingthe patents at issue with dozens of other companies, the Finnishcompany most likely felt confident that it would be able to reach anagreement with Apple as well. When the negotiations reached an impasse,Nokia was essentially left with no other choice but to pursue legalrecourse."
"Filing the lawsuit against Apple is most likely, at least in part, adeliberate strategy to put more pressure on Apple to agree to the termsthat Nokia has requested with regards to licensing the patentedtechnologies," Kessel reports. "Because the 10 patents at issue include'fundamental' cellular technologies, the lawsuit may also have beenmotivated by some (or many) of the other companies who are alreadypaying licensing fees to Nokia and want Apple to do the same." |
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Madoff trustee sues Madoff family for almost $200M
Headline Legal News |
2009/10/02 22:58
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Bernard Madoff's brother, sons and a niece used the family finance business like a "piggy bank," a court-appointed trustee charged Friday as he demanded in a lawsuit that they return almost $200 million in money to be distributed to cheated investors.
The trustee, Irving Picard, sought $198.7 million from Madoff's brother, Peter, who had worked at Madoff's Manhattan investment company since 1965, and sons, Mark and Andrew. Also sued was Shana D. Madoff, Bernard Madoff's niece and Peter Madoff's daughter. Lawyers for the Madoff's brother and sons did not immediately return a phone call for comment. A message for comment left at Shana Madoff's East Hampton home was not immediately returned. Lawyers for Picard said in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan that Madoff's family-run business "was operated as if it were the family piggy bank." They said each of the family members withdrew huge sums of money to fund personal business ventures and to pay for expenses ranging from multimillion dollar homes, cars and boats to monthly credit card charges for restaurants, vacations and clothing. The lawyers said $141 million identified as fraudulent proceeds were received by the family members in the six years before Madoff surrendered and revealed his plot last December while at least $58 million was received in the last two years. Peter Madoff was the company's senior managing director and chief compliance officer while Mark and Andrew shared the title of co-director of trading. Mark had worked with his father at the company since 1986 while Andrew had been there since 1988. Shana Madoff, a lawyer, had worked there since 1995 as compliance counsel and in-house counsel, the court papers said. |
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ACLU Demands Info On DHS Computer Searches At Borders
Headline Legal News |
2009/08/28 17:36
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According to Courthouse News, the ACLU demands information on the Department of Homeland Security's policy on searching laptop computers at international borders. The DHS' Customs and Border Protection office announced in July that it can search electronic devices and any printed material carried by travelers regardless of whether they are suspected of anything - a statement one senator called "truly alarming."
Such searches, made without suspicion of any legal infraction, violate civil rights, according to the complaint, which quotes Senator Russell Feingold as calling the practice "truly alarming."
A bill pending in Congress would require DHS to base such searches on reasonable suspicion.
The ACLU says the DHS blew off its Freedom of Information Act request for information about the policy. |
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Veteran Says Mercenaries Shot Him In Iraq
Headline Legal News |
2009/08/27 16:19
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Courthouse News reports that civilian security contractors in Iraq shot and permanently disabled a US Special Forces sergeant as he returned to Baghdad International Airport after an intelligence mission, the veteran claims in Federal Court. Sgt. Khadim Alkanani claims the June 2005 shooting was "remarkably similar" to other incidents which employees of Aegis Defense Services have captured on "trophy videos" which show "senseless shootings of innocent personnel in automobiles from an armed vehicle."
Immediately after the shooting, the Aegis employees apologized for shooting him and his three-vehicle convoy, Alkanani says. They claimed they had mistaken them for suicide bombers - though Alkanani's convoy had been traveling directly behind the mercenaries and had stopped and showed identification at two checkpoints before the shooting.
The shooting took place within the main gate of Baghdad International airport, where there were no ongoing hostilities nor a credible threat of imminent hostilities, the complaint states. |
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Former Prof Arrested, Accused of Taking 2 Guns Into Law Library
Headline Legal News |
2009/08/26 23:01
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According to the ABA Journal, a former adjunct faculty member at the University of Louisville's law school was arrested Friday after allegedly bringing two handguns and 53 rounds of ammunition into the law school library around 8:30 a.m.
Police were initially called about Thomas Irwin, 56, because a library employee who recognized him knew that he had been banned from the campus in 2008, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Authorities said Irwin had a permit to carry the handguns and told police he had the guns because he planned to go to a shooting range later in the day, the newspaper recounts. However, guns are banned on the University of Louisville campus, and Irwin was charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon and criminal trespass. Both are misdemeanors. |
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