What happened to John Albers, a 17-year-old high school student whose suicidal cry for help ended in his being shot by a cop for no discernible reason, was a tragic story. But for two weeks after the killing, the cop was known as “Officer John Doe.” It wasn’t until her attorney uncovered it for the ensuing civil suit that they confirmed who shot and killed John Albers.

The difficulties Albers faced to get basic information into how her son, John, died are not unique in a state where police records are largely kept under wraps, even when a case is closed. It took a month for Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe to decide to clear the officer, Clayton Jenison, of wrongdoing.

Before then, Overland Park Police Chief Frank Donchez had refused to release the officer’s name. Albers said she was never afforded any police reports or witness statements.

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About 20 years ago, one of my undergrad profs, James Maas, was taken to task in the New York Times for being . . . funny. It was the one time I felt compelled to write a letter to the editor at the Times, which made it into print.

Granted, it was more Las Vegas than Ithaca, but education is not what one remembers for a test but what one remembers for life.

The substance remains educational. The delivery method, humor, makes you watch and pay attention. It may not work for everyone, but what does? On the other hand, humor doesn’t work for everyone either, and that’s never been more true than when every effort at humor is scrutinized for offense. That was accounting senior lecturer Catherine West Lowry’s downfall. Continue reading →

Nobody ever mistook Harvey Weinstein for Fabio. If a woman had sex with him, it was for a reason other than his exceptionally good looks. Whatever could that be?

Laura Kipnis writes about what the Weinstein trial, which commences with jury selection today, means for culture, for feminism. And what it doesn’t.

Over 80 women have made public accusations against the former Hollywood mogul. In the post-#MeToo court of public opinion there are many for whom a charge sheet this extensive demands an automatic guilty verdict. In the courts of New York state, however, where due process prevails and there are only two official accusers, the outcome is less certain.

She’s right, even if she severely overstates the prevalence of due process and understates the number of “official” accusers. Continue reading →

When you sit down for a meal at a restaurant, itself a privileged act, of course, unless one accepts the premise that it’s not colonialism to use one’s undeserved earnings to enjoy a decent meal, would you like to know that it’s worth the price? Then you’re going to have an issue with the nextgen food critics.

2018 was a year of tectonic shifts in restaurant writing. Both the critic and the criteria came under scrutiny. The #MeToo scandals sparked a national reexamination of the field’s food-first values. Media outlets across the country debated how to cover restaurants owned by Mario Batali, John Besh, Paul Qui, and other alleged abusers.

Eater: “Maybe Don’t Review Restaurants Run by Bad People?”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “It’s Not My Job to Pass Judgment on a Chef’s Character.” Continue reading →

With unsurprising regularity, a young lawyer twits that he tried a case that he thought he should have won. But he lost. He’s upset. He’s angry. He twits for catharsis. He twits for succor. He asks, “Was it me, did I blow it? I thought I did a great job, but I lost.”

In response, there is usually an outpouring of support from his tribe, other young lawyers of similar stature, assuring the bereft lawyer that he did a great job, that it wasn’t him, that it’s the system, the jury, the law that sucks. But not him.

In the latest one that crossed my path, one older and more experienced lawyer twitted that no criminal defense lawyer (actually, he said “public defender,” but it’s not an important distinction) loses a case and doesn’t doubt that he could have done better. This is a truism, and it should be. Every good lawyer who gets a guilty verdict ponders what he could have done better. Heck, most good lawyers ask the same question even when they get an acquittal, realizing that the verdict could have easily gone the other way. Juries are fickle. Continue reading →

It seemed most likely to be a horrific murder or rape to be the impetus to demand reversal of New York’s new bail reform laws, which went into effect January 1. Not that anyone with any real grasp of criminal law didn’t know it was going to happen. Of course it was. Something would happen. Something always happens.

Some guy cut loose for a crime on the list of crimes for which bail couldn’t be imposed would go out and commit a horrific crime and all hell would break loose. The backlash would be as insipid as the frontlash, as advocates for change used sad anecdotes to support their cause, and so too would advocates against it do the same, but with a story of how horribly wrong it was to free the guy who did this horrible thing.

The new bail reform law was crafted to produce this result. Instead of reaching individual determinations on a better basis than the failed way in which it had gone on forever, and which could have been ended in a snap had judges chosen to do their job rather than rubber stamp baby prosecutors’ often needless requests for bail, it created yet another one-size-fits-all solution: precluding the use of bail for most crime. Continue reading →

They were so enthralled that you would have thought the ABA added ten new paying members, but it was only that a second state adopted the ABA’s social justice Model Rule 8.4(g).

Maine is the second state to adopt Rule 8.4(g) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, according to Bloomberg Law. Vermont was the first.

Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court adopted the new rule, which takes effect June 1. It differs slightly from the ABA model rule, according to Bloomberg Law.

“Slightly” does a lot of work here, as the word “significantly” must have had more letters than the ABA could afford. There is a reason the rule has been shunned and rejected, so naturally the brave scolds of the ABA learned their lesson, right? Continue reading →

Mario’s ugliest son can moral grandstand with the best of them, particularly when it ends up with people going to prison as long as they’re the “right” people. But as governor, Andy Cuomo has proven himself as niggardly as possible.

Friday turned out to be the day some New York State prisoners saw their dreams come true in the form of mercy from Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The governor used his executive clemency powers to commute the sentences of two convicted criminals, and grant pardons to nine others.

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SHG:

Aloha from “my island.” I don’t want to give away too many particulars of my location because I like how few people are actually around.

It’s amazing out here. A ten minute walk for coffee in the morning will give you a gorgeous oceanfront experience. I am sheltered from the bulk of “mainlanders,” the good-natured jab locals call tourists. There’s basically no one within thousands of miles to piss me off. Continue reading →

One of the weird things about having been around the blawgosphere for a long time is that you know people from back when, and people who stumbled onto the internet later can’t understand how friendships came about given their current impressions of personas. I’ve been friends with Mike Cernovich since his blawg Crime & Federalism, long before his Gorilla fame on twitter.

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Elie Mystal, who found his way onto Above the Law back when it was funny and relevant by winning ATL Idol. The commentariat there spent a good deal of time kicking Elie in the butt, as he (like me) became renowned for his typos, and I came to Elie’s defense for two reasons. First, he was brutally smart and hysterically funny. Second, I like Elie and he was a friend. Continue reading →