There is no shortage of stories about a parent going into a bar while leaving a child alone in a car.  This is one such story.

INDIANAPOLIS – A woman was arrested after police said she left her two children alone in an unlocked, running car while she went into a bar to get a beer Sunday evening.

Police were called to John Wayne’s Pub & Eatery in the 2300 block of East Stop 11 Road after a concerned person called for a welfare check on two children left alone in a car.

When police arrived, they found a 1-year-old and 9-year-old alone in the back seat of an unlocked Volkswagen Beetle.

Denise Shannon, who will not win mother of the year, didn’t see the problem. Then again, she was drunk.  And she left the engine running.  Few will argue that it was wrong to arrest her for endangering the welfare of her children. Continue reading →

The New York Times’ public editor, whose job it is to concede its editorial foibles in such a way as to create the appearance of fairness while not dulling the newspaper’s shine, admitted that a story failed to do something critical to legitimate journalism:

Curtis Tate, a reporter for McClatchy News’s Washington bureau, spent a recent weekend generating spreadsheets from a database on hazardous materials for his story on the increasing amount of crude oil spilled in rail accidents.

A week later, The Times ran a broader article on the same subject, complete with photographs, requisite anecdotal lead, and big-picture sweep. It included findings that came from Mr. Tate’s research, but it did not credit McClatchy.

The excuse was that the reporter “didn’t realize that what he paraphrased was based on another news organizations’s exclusive reporting.”  Because, you know, there are simply free-floating “findings” out there for anybody to use. Continue reading →

Via South Florida Lawyers blog:

And they’re”insightful!”  And “dynamic!”  And “outspoken!”

Terrence McCoy over at Riptide broke this amazing story.  According to Terrence, this appears to be an email Mike sent out to the media:

Are you a member of the media? Do you care about Justin Bieber? Of course you do. Silly question.

That’s where I, Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco, come in. Not only am I a former state prosecutor and defense attorney — but I’m  also available for comment. Right now. Call me. I know I told you last  time that I’d only ask once. I was wrong. Whatevs. But, really, last  time I’m asking: Let’s talk Bieber. (Please.)

–XOXO Michael Grieco Continue reading →

Orin Kerr, at his new WaPo Volokh Conspiracy money machine gig, combines the holdings in two cases to arrive at a mathematical solution to one of the most intractable problems in criminal law.  First, the scenario:

Imagine a police officer pulls over a car for a routine traffic violation, such as speeding or driving with a broken taillight.  During the stop, the officer develops a hunch that there may be drugs in the car.  He contacts a local K-9 unit and requests a trained drug-sniffing dog; when the unit arrives, another officer will walk the dog around the car to see if it alerts to drugs inside.  Although the Supreme Court has held that the use of the dog is not a search, the length of a warrantless stop must be reasonable. The officer can’t delay the driver forever.

While Orin relies on a hunch, it’s really not critical that the cop have any basis whatsoever. Even if the situation was changed to cover the cop who calls for a dog because it’s a black driver in a new Mercedes, or a couple of Hispanics in a car on a drug route in an area where there aren’t a lot of folks with colored complexions, the tactic is the same. Stopped car. No reasonable suspicion. Call in the dog. Continue reading →

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for an academic to stake out a place for himself in the universe of worthless scholarship.  Danielle Citron owns Cyber Civil Rights.  Mary Anne Franks nailed down revenge porn.  Even the empathetic killer space was nabbed by Robert Blecker.

Poor Thane Rosenbaum of Fordham Law School was nicheless. Sure, he tried his hand at being the hero of revenge, but nobody noticed. There were lots of articles about the enemies of Judaism, but there is no juice left in condemning Eichmann, even with Osama bin Laden thrown in for timeliness.  He would never become a brand this way.

But maybe, just maybe, by combining his interests he could develop a new niche, a heretofore unrecognized space that he could fill?  Enter the Daily Beast:

New studies show that unbridled hateful speech can cause emotional harm. Is it time for the United States to follow other democracies and impose limits on what Neo-Nazis and other haters say? Continue reading →

Via the spokesmodel for Occupy Main Justice, Bill Otis:

The Attorney General announced last week that he would support the Durbin-Lee bill pending in the Senate.  That legislation would drastically cut back on mandatory minimum sentences for drug pushers  —  not just for pot, but for all drug offenses, including major and repeat trafficking in heroin, meth, PCP and other extremely dangerous, and often lethal, drugs.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that they can’t be sentenced to life plus cancer, but that judges won’t be constrained to do so.  That alone provoked outrage.

As career DOJ prosecutors know, strong mandatory minimum statutes are essential to rein in the sometimes ideological, sometimes naive, and sometimes careless decisions of sentencing courts.

When the Attorney General decided to join the effort to kneecap mandatory minimums, career attorneys could remain silent no longer. Continue reading →

Among the skills one would find desirable in a judge, such as intelligence, fairness, honesty and an even temperament, the ability to communicate with others would be right up there. Not only the ability to write and speak clearly and comprehensibly, but to listen to others and grasp what they are saying.

You see, some folks who come before a judge aren’t the most articulate, and often speak in a vernacular that’s foreign to the sanitary world of official lawyers and judges. Elyria, Ohio, Municipal Court Judge Gary Bennett made himself the posterjudge for this point.  Via Gideon at A Public Defender:

Continue reading →

A curious email came in from Dubois, Wyoming the other day. Scott Trimble, chargé d’affaires for the Trial Lawyers College, which is either one of the top three programs for criminal defense lawyers or a dangerous cult bent on getting grown-up lawyers to wear cowboy jackets with fringes, had a question.

 I’m wondering if there’s any way you can help us get the word out?

Me?  Because I’m one of those “get the word out” kinda guys?  Being that sort of fellow, I replied to Scott with my usual, thoughtful aplomb:

So I’ve notice that lawyers of a certain age look quite good in those fringed cowboy coats they have up there in Dubois, Wyoming. While I normally charge for advertising conferences, one of those cool coats might just do the trick. And maybe a hat. Hats are good too. Continue reading →

The breaking news is that Bill deBlasio kept his campaign promise.  From the New York Times:

New York City will settle its long-running legal battle over the Police Department’s practice of stopping, questioning and often frisking people on the street — a divisive issue at the heart of the mayoral race last year — by agreeing to reforms that a judge ordered in August, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday.

The City has moved to drop the 2d Circuit appeal that gave rise to the infamous Shira Scheindlin ouster ruling, the police unions’ motion to intervene to prevent the City from settling the case and the Bloomberg administration’s last-ditch effort to gets its brief in ahead of schedule to force the issue. As Jacob Gershman at the WSJLawBlog notes, the deal is in the works. Continue reading →

The story is long and convoluted, as most are when you go a bit below the surface.  Thomas Henderson had been a prosecutor in Shelby County, Tennessee, since 1976, and by 1997, was the top trial guy in District Attorney Amy Weirich’s office.  When the no-body case of a motel clerk, Ricci Ellsworth, came in, Henderson caught it.

From Memphis Flyer:

Officers from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department and the Memphis Police Department found large amounts of blood in the employee bathroom, a cracked sink, bloody towels, and the seat had been torn off the toilet. Sheets were taken, as well as $600 from the register. Ricci Ellsworth, the motel night clerk, was gone. Her 1989 Dodge Dynasty was still in the parking lot. Her body has not been found. She disappeared, but not without a trace. Continue reading →