WorldCom founder Bernie Ebbers, age 65, will report to federal prison tomorrow to begin serving his 25 year sentence for fraud. For Ebbers, it is a life sentence.

In the category of longest prison sentence, WorldCom Inc. founder Bernard J. Ebbers recently bested the organizer of an armed robbery, the leaders of a Bronx drug gang and the acting boss of the Gambino crime family.

Also on Tuesday, Enron's former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow will be sentenced. He cooperated with the Government and faces no more than ten years in prison.

Exercising one's constitutional right to a jury trial has never been more perilous. Ebbers' cohort, Scott Sullivan, the architect of the WorldCom scheme, was sentenced to only five years after he decided to cooperate and testify against Ebbers. Ken Lay was facing 25 years after his conviction, and Jeff Skilling is looking at the same, after they went to trial and were convicted, in large part due to Fastow's testimony against them.

The Washington Post article focuses on this issue:

In hope of avoiding having to return to Mexcio, Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, will seek to offer an apology to Mexico, pay a fine, make a donation to charity and forfeit his bond money, according to his lawyer, Brook Hart of Honolulu.

I'm betting Brook, who is a top notch criminal defense lawyer, will pull it off.

As readers know, I've been following the case of Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, and his arrest in Hawaii last week on an extradition warrant from Mexico stemming from his capture of convicted rapist Andrew Luster there a few years ago. He posted bail the following day and now awaits further proceedings.

Last night, A&E aired a special show featuring Dog and his wife Beth. A&E reports today (received by e-mail, no link yet):

Tuesday night's special on A&E Network, Dog: The Family Speaks reached 1.5 million A18-34 viewers and 2.9 million A18-49 viewers, making it the top A&E telecast in the history of the network for both demos. The special also delivered 2.6 million A25-54 viewers.

Why the interest? Is it all about Dog, or is there some politics mixed in? One of those involved in marketing the special added these thoughts in an e-mail:

For all you supporters of Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, you can view exclusive video and photos of his arrest and bail posting here.

Tuesday night on A&E, there will be a special episode of "DOG: The Family Speaks" at 10 pm ET. You can watch the trailer here.

From A&E's press release today, in case you haven't been following along:

by TChris

Every police officer in the country must have known that pulling over Willie Nelson's bus would be an easy way to make a pot bust. It happened today in Louisiana, after the bus was stopped for "a commercial vehicle inspection."

A search of the bus produced 11/2 pounds of marijuana and 0.2 pounds of narcotic mushrooms, according to state police.

Nelson needs to find a new driver, as Louisiana apparently suspends commercial driving privileges on the spot when a driver is arrested for pot possession.

Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, made bail in Hawaii yesterday.

Dog has to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, but otherwise can go about his life as he awaits extradition hearings.

Background here.

Oh, no! My pal Duane Chapman, also known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, was arrested by U.S. Marshals today on an extradition warrant out of Mexico for his actions in apprehending since convicted multiple date-rapist Max Factor heir Andrew Luster.

In 2003, Chapman traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to retrieve Max Factor cosmetics heir Andrew Luster, who was wanted in the U.S. on rape charges. Luster is now in jail, serving a 124-year term. The Chapmans were jailed in Mexico for a brief time for the incident three years ago. Bounty hunting is considered a crime in Mexico.

Dog's wife, Beth Chapman, said 12 armed marshals "came through the door" at 6:00AM this morning. She said they took their daughter's boyfriend down at gunpoint. Dog was sleeping at the time. TMZ spoke with Nicky Credic from the U.S. Marshals Office. She said, "The arrest warrant was signed by a U.S. magistrate in Hawaii on September 13. The warrant was based on a formal request based on a diplomatic note from the government of Mexico."

Free Dog! He did a great public service in apprehending the fugitive Andrew Luster. The Mexican authorities had it in for him. See this 2003 CNN article.

More on Dog here.

by TChris

If you want to make sure a political candidate is happy with poll results, why not make up the data?

The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results. ... According to a federal indictment, Costin told employees to alter poll data, and managers at the company told employees to ''talk to cats and dogs'' when instructing them to fabricate the surveys.

How the cats and dogs felt about Bush and Lieberman is unknown.

Jonathon Edington, a 29 year old Connecticut patent lawyer, has been charged with stabbing his neighbor to death after receiving information from relatives that the neighbor molested his two year old daughter.

The police said the lawyer, Jonathon Edington, 29, repeatedly stabbed the neighbor, Barry James, 59, and then walked back home. Mr. James, whose mother found him bleeding to death just after 4:30 p.m. Monday, was taken to Bridgeport Hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

The Fairfield police charged Mr. Edington, who had no criminal record, with murder and burglary after officers said they found him in his kitchen later that afternoon, covered in blood.

Mickey Sherman, who is representing Mr. Edington said:

The New York Times today has an 8 page online article on the Duke Lacrosse alleged rape case.

By disclosing pieces of evidence favorable to the defendants, the defense has created an image of a case heading for the rocks. But an examination of the entire 1,850 pages of evidence gathered by the prosecution in the four months after the accusation yields a more ambiguous picture. It shows that while there are big weaknesses in Mr. Nifong's case, there is also a body of evidence to support his decision to take the matter to a jury.

The commenters are analyzing it over at the Duke Forums. You can comment there or here.

My first question is just how did the New York Times get the entire discovery file? After that, I wonder about the accuracy of some of the police reports when I read this:

The family of John Mark Karr is looking for a buyer for the movie rights to their story. They say it is to help pay for a high-powered lawyer to represent the suspect in the Jonbenet Ramsey case.

Karr's father and brother hired actor, author and producer Larry Garrison to represent them in any media deals and to help them find a top attorney to represent Karr, who is in a Los Angeles jail awaiting transfer to Colorado to face allegations he killed the girl in 1996.

But what does the family know about him in recent years? When was the last time they saw him? Reportedly, the father thought he was dead. Does anyone even want to hear their story? The story that counts is that of John Mark Karr.

Even sillier, the family thinks that the public defender's office isn't adequate.

"Right now he's got a public defender to represent him," Garrison said. "It's their desire to get someone high-level." Garrison declined to say if the family has been in touch with Karr in jail.

by TChris

Frank Quattrone has to be a happy man today. Charged with obstructing a federal investigation by directing co-workers (via email) to "clean up" their files (which the feds read to mean "destroy the evidence"), Quattrone's first trial ended in a hung jury. He was convicted in a second trial and sentenced to 18 months in prison, but his conviction was overturned on appeal.

The good news for Quattrone is that he won't face a third trial:

U.S. District Court Judge George B. Daniels approved a one-year deferred prosecution agreement, calling for the charges to be dismissed if Quattrone stays out of trouble for one year.

The agreement required no admission of guilt. This is an excellent result for Quattrone's defense team, and an embarrassment for the Southern District of New York prosecutors who handled the case.