by TChris

Judge Don Harding in Franklin County, Idaho, will soon decide whether Bart Pitcher should remain in prison. Pitcher's release seems like a no-brainer.

Harding heard arguments from Pitcher's attorneys and from a special prosecutor representing the state of Idaho who all agreed Pitcher was convicted on trumped-up evidence collected in an illegal search.

The special prosecutor acknowledged that the case against Pitcher was based on "lies, half-truths, illegal searches, manufactured facts and probable manufactured evidence." Pitcher has been in prison since 2003, serving a minimum sentence of 10 years.

Pitcher’s attorneys say that former Police Chief Scott Shaw coerced Pitcher into pleading guilty to charges of manufacturing methamphetamine by threatening to pursue charges against Pitcher’s ex-wife and daughter if Pitcher didn’t take the rap. Shaw has since been charged with seven felony counts, “including falsifying police reports, perjury and misappropriation of public funds.”

by TChris

Michael Powell is gone, and so, it seems, is the administration's controversial effort to weaken regulations that prevent media companies from monopolizing the ownership of newspapers and television stations in the same markets. The Justice Department will not seek review of a federal court's order that blocked the FCC's rule change.

"This is a recognition of the failure of the commission to adequately justify its rules and is a recognition of its failure to protect the public interest," FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat, told The New York Times. "This is a historic decision for the media democracy movement."

by TChris

Iraqi authorities announced today that they "arrested two close associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, including the chief of the terror mastermind's Baghdad operation."

Qassim Dawoud, a top security adviser, told reporters that the arrests of the al-Zarqawi lieutenants occurred in mid-January but gave few details.

The arrests did not curb the violence in Iraq.

On Thursday, [al-Zarqawi's] group posted a video on the Internet showing the murder of a candidate from Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party. The tape included a warning to Allawi personally: "You traitor, wait for the angel of death."

In light of the ongoing bloodshed, the announcement of the arrests seems unlikely to achieve its apparent goal: "bolstering public confidence in security forces in advance of Sunday's election."

Update: The bloodshed includes another downed helicopter, two days after a helicopter crash killed 31 U.S. troops. The fate of the crew in today's crash is unknown, but five U.S. troops were killed today in unrelated combat.

by TChris

When INS agents broke into a Miami home in 2000 to seize Elian Gonzalez, their unnecessarily aggressive tactics were widely criticized. Now neighbors and bystanders who were traumatized by the agents' actions are in court, asking a judge for damages.

In a civil trial that began Monday in federal court here, 13 plaintiffs are seeking up to $250,000 each in damages, charging that agents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service unnecessarily sprayed them with tear gas at close range, shoved, cursed and traumatized them in their zeal to remove Elián without a struggle.

Some plaintiffs testified that agents went onto their property to spray tear gas, while others said they were sprayed in the face while standing behind the barricades. Several said they initially thought Mr. Castro had sent the black-suited, helmeted agents to wreak havoc on their neighborhood.

The government claims that the agents used only "appropriate and necessary force." The trial is expected to end today.

by TChris

Federal prosecutors filed a complaint yesterday charging four Chicago police officers with "shaking down" drug dealers for their cash, drugs, and guns. One of the officers had already been assigned to desk duty while internal affairs investigated a complaint that he helped a suspect avoid capture for a shooting.

The officers' shake-down scheme began to unravel when they tried to take drugs and guns from a snitch who was cooperating with (and under surveillance by) other cops.

Any arrest the officers were involved in could now be called into question, [Chicago Police Supt. Phil] Cline said.

The officers have been suspended without pay pending their termination. TalkLeft reported on similar behavior by Los Angeles police officers here.

Steve Gillard writes about the employer who told his employees to quit smoking or look elsewhere for work. Now the employer is on a crusade against the overweight. Steve asks, "Where does it end?" Here's my answer:

This reminds me of today, where so many Americans don't care about the detainees at Guantanamo being held three years without charges or lawyers. They need to realize that they are setting a policy in motion that three or ten or twenty years from now may be applied to them or their kids or someone they care about. Today it's smoking and eating, tomorrow it's....fill in the blank.

Of course, I don't believe for a minute that this employer cares one whit about the health of his employees. He cares about his insurance rates being higher for those employees who smoke. And he's afraid that overweight people need more medical care than do thin people, and the greater the medical costs of employees, the higher the insurance rates for employers. So hold your praise.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN: Charges of coziness with Republicans mark Democratic chairman's race, from ex-Rep. Roemer's past opposition to Clinton's economic plan to ex-Rep. Frost's 2004 re-election ad touting ability to work with Bush and Hastert. As candidates prepare to court committee members Saturday in New York, some veterans fear the spectacle of chaos. "It's supposed to be a rigged deal," grouses ex-Clinton strategist Carville.

[via Politcal Wire.]

Javal Davis has agreed to plead guilty in his Iraqi prisoner abuse case. This is an about face because even after Sgt. Charles Graner's conviction, his lawyer said he planned to raise the "orders from above" defense for Davis.

Davis, 27, of Roselle, had been charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, dereliction of duty for failing to protect detainees from abuse, and maltreatment of detainees. Those charges will be dismissed, and Davis - who is not seen in any of the notorious photos from the prison - will plead guilty to simple assault and rendering false official statements...

Davis' jail exposure will be reduced from a possible 8 1/2 years to 1 1/2 years, but his lawyer is hoping to get him out without jail time and to keep him in the military.

Senator Barbara Boxer has a diary at Daily Kos and writes about her appreciation to the blogoshphere for supporting her position on Condi Rice. Here's a bit:

I can't thank all of you enough -- the Daily Kos community, and the blogosphere as a whole -- for all of your effective work during the recent debate over Condoleezza Rice's nomination. Your support and participation in this critical debate meant so much to me.

.... You helped to get our message out to millions of Americans -- I couldn't have done it without you. And you made a difference. You gave me the voice I needed to ask the tough questions during Dr. Rice's confirmation hearings. And you gave the entire United States Senate the voice it needed to take its "advice and consent" responsibility seriously. In fact, Condoleezza Rice received 13 votes against her confirmation -- the most votes against any Secretary of State's nomination since 1825.

There was a Perry Mason-type moment* in the trial of defrocked Priest Paul Shanley in Boston today, as the accuser broke down on the witness stand, multiple times, and then begged the judge not to make him return tomorrow.

The accuser is not under subpoena, so if he doesn't show to complete the cross-examination, a mistrial will be requested by the defense.

This case is a repressed or recovered memory case in which the accuser suddenly remembered, 20 years later, that he was abused after reading about allegations of others, including some of his classmates, in the news. He immediately hooked up with a personal injury lawyer and settled for $500,000. Tough cross-examination is a necessity in the case. Cross- examination has been called the greatest engine ever invented for ferreting out untruths in the courtroom. (Wigmore on Evidence)

No reputable psychological, scientific or medical organization endorses repressed memories. Or the theory that trauma causes children who were repetitively sexually abused to somehow block out the memory years and years. (At most, some say they can't for sure rule it out.)

Former Democratic VP candidate John Edwards' brother, Wesley Blake Edwards, is coming to a hoosegow near us on May 10. A 40 year old electrician living in North Carolina, the younger Edwards got a DUI ticket in Colorado in 1993 and never appeared. After his brother was named VP candidate, the ticket surfaced.

He pleaded guilty today in Arapahoe County, Colorado to the lesser charge of driving while impaired and got 60 days with work release. Why so stiff? It was his fourth alcohol-related driving conviction, and his license had been suspended after the third.

The Supreme Court today set aside a lower court stay of execution for Michael Ross of Connecticut. This clears the way for his execution. Ross waived his appeals but Public Defenders, no longer representing him, sought a competency hearing.

Kirby's Report, a Connecticut law blog, is following the case. He says that once the Second Circuit lifts its restraining order, which could be tomorrow, the state will be free to execute Ross at any time, possibly even tomorrow evening.