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Actor Sylvester Stallone has been charged in Australia with illegally importing 48 vials of a hormone growth drug into Australia. He didn't declare the drug on his Customs form. Later, his hotel room and private jet were searched.
Stallone says,
It was just a minor misunderstanding. They were just doing their jobs. I just didn't understand some of the rules here."
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The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to hear WorldCom former chief Bernie Ebbers' appeal. Ebbers, at 65, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Ebbers argued in court papers that the trial judge improperly allowed prosecutors to use testimony from witnesses who had been given immunity, but denied immunity to potential defense witnesses.
The judge also instructed jurors that they could find Ebbers guilty if they believed he suspected a crime was being committed but intentionally looked the other way.
It appears now he will die there.
More...
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Once again, no justice for Emmett Till. The grand jury investigating his 1955 murder has returned a "no true bill" against Carolyn Bryant, now 72.
The grand jury in Leflore County wrapped up its work this past week and issued a "no bill" against Carolyn Bryant, the widow of one of two white men originally acquitted of Till's death. A "no bill" means the grand jury found insufficient evidence existed for an indictment on a criminal charge. Documents made public Tuesday show prosecutors sought a manslaughter charge
.....Till was kidnapped from the Leflore County town of Money in 1955. Three days later, the 14-year-old's mutilated body was found in the Tallahatchie River.
Roy Bryant, Carolyn Bryant's husband, and his half brother, J.W. Milam, were acquitted of the crime by an all-white jury. The two men later confessed in an interview with Look magazine. Till had been accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, and some witnesses have said a woman's voice could be heard at the scene of the abduction.
David Seth at Daily Kos has the details and a strong reaction.
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Lawyers for the three charged Duke lacrosse team players filed a 39 page motion (available here, pdf) today arguing that they still have not received complete DNA analysis in the case.
In the motion, defense attorneys do not blame the special prosecutors for the issues because they said they did not have any direct knowledge of the withholding of evidence.
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Bad news today out of a federal court in Mexico. Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman has lost his appeal challenging extradition to Mexico to stand trial on charges of "deprivation of liberty" for his capture of Andrew Luster.
In October, 28 members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice asking her to block the extradition.
Dog had offered an apology to Mexico, pay a fine, make a donation to charity and forfeit his bond money. That should have been enough.
It's time to free Dog. And yes, he's a long-time pal.
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People who have a "throw the book at 'em" attitude about all crime, large and small, often experience a change of heart when a son or daughter is arrested and charged. It's difficult to watch as one's child is chewed up by the criminal justice system.
Justice Scalia doesn't necessarily have a "throw the book at 'em" attitude, but it is interesting to wonder whether his daughter's experience with the criminal justice system will cause him feel a bit more sympathy toward the hardships that ordinary defendants endure during and after an arrest.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's daughter was arrested this week and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and child endangerment, officials said Wednesday.
Ann Banaszewski was arrested after driving with an undisclosed blood alcohol level. Three children were in her van.
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I'm with TRex, I don't get the media fascination with Astronaut Lisa Nowak's arrest. There's nothing about it I find even remotely interesting.
Big Media's lurid coverage of this case is off key, out of line, and really, unduly fixated on the salacious details, but of course, why should we expect any different? There's a woman to be degraded and humiliated here! Call out Greta Van Suffering!
If you feel differently, here's a place to discuss it.
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Remember Chai Vang, the Hmong hunter convicted of killing six white hunters in Wisconsin a few years ago?
It appears there may have been a revenge killing. A White hunter, James Allen Nichols, is accused of killing a Hmong hunter, Cha Vang, earlier this month. (yes, the names are that similar.) Was it an accidental shooting? Consider this:
There was no need to shoot Vang, stab him six times and then shove a 3- to 4-inch stick down his throat, what Allen has been accused of doing. Maybe, in the heat of the moment, it became a crime of hatred.
The Hmong community is seeking justice.
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One of the grand jurors in the Duke Lacrosse players' alleged sexual assault case says he now has second thoughts. Two of the grand jurors appeared on Good Morning America. They couldn't discuss what happened in the grand jury, so they talked only about their impressions since.
"Knowing what I know now and all that's been broadcast on the news and in media, I think I would have definitely … made a different decision," he said to ABC News.
"I don't think I could have made a decision to go forward with the charges that were put before us. I don't think those charges would have been the proper charges, based on what I know now," he said.
The second grand juror disagreed.
"I don't know for sure whether she was raped, you know, because of everything that … came out," he said. "I'm not sure, to tell you the truth."
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Actor Ryan O'Neal was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon over the weekend. He had been out with former girlfriend Farrah Fawcett, celebrating her 60th birthday and her recent diagnosis she is now cancer free.
Son Griffin and his pregnant girlfriend were home when they returned. According to Ryan, Griffin attacked with a fire poker, grazing him and hitting his girlfriend in the head. He fled upstairs and got his gun, heard Griffin approaching and fired a shot into the bannister.
So, if Ryan's version is accurate, he gets arrested for assault with a deadly weapon for aiming at a bannister (not his son) and Griffin, who assaulted his pregnant girlfriend with a fire poker, requiring brief hospitalization, doesn't get arrested?
Stay tuned.
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What a tragic story. Orlando Valle, 35, who worked in the mailroom at the New York Public Libary, was celebrating his birthday with family at the trendy nightclub BED in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
The maitre-d'/ manager is 43 year old Granville Adams, who played Muslim inmate leader Zahir Arif on HBO's prison series "Oz."
[Valle] got into a scuffle with Adams and was thrown against the elevator with such force that the doors opened and he plunged four stories to his death, cops said.
Adams was arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide.
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This is how the Tampa police treated a woman who reported being raped.
Polife officers helping the 21-year-old woman search for her attacker jailed her after finding that she failed to pay back money she owed after a 2003 theft arrest. A jail worker later refused to give her a second dose of a morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy because of religious convictions, said Vic Moore, the college student's attorney.
Moral: don't report a rape if you've ever failed to pay a court obligation. Second moral: if the jailer won't let you take your emergency contraception, call the press.
[T]he woman was allowed to take the second emergency contraceptive pill Monday afternoon, a day late, and then only after reporters started calling police and jail officials. Authorities then arranged a special emergency bond hearing on Monday afternoon.
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