In order to pay off a $5,000 poker debt, Greg Hogan, a sophomore at Lehigh University who is president of his class, plays cello in the university orchestra, and is the son of a Baptist pastor, robbed a bank. Authorities say he confessed. His lawyer blames it on the national poker craze and has already hired forensic experts to explain his addiction.

Now Hogan, the 19-year-old son of a Baptist minister, faces as much as 20 years in prison on bank robbery charges, and his lawyer says the nationwide poker craze is partly to blame.

''This is one of the nicest kids I've ever met, but his gambling addiction led him to make a terrible, terrible mistake,'' said Waldron of Allentown. ''There's so much good in this kid. It easily outweighs this one bad mistake.''

Lehigh University costs $40k a year. Mr. Hogan's private high school near Shaker Heights, Ohio cost $19k a year. Why rob a bank rather than call your parents, get a new credit card with a cash advance feature, take out a loan or sell your stuff? What's wrong with this picture? What a waste of a life filled with opportunity.

A front page article in today's Wall Street Journal on the Jeffrey MacDonald case reports that lawyers for MacDonald filed papers yesterday in the 4th Circuit to set aside MacDonald's sentence based on newly-discovered evidence of prosecutorial misconduct.

It's been more than a quarter-century since Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted of murdering his wife and two daughters in their Fort Bragg, N.C., home. The former Green Beret, 62 years old, is serving a life sentence in a Cumberland, Md., prison. Dr. MacDonald's story has been examined in dozens of judicial opinions, dramatized on television and told in a best-selling book, "Fatal Vision."

Now a bizarre epilogue is unfolding.

Helen Stoeckley matched MacDonald's description of one of the attackers the night of the murders of his wife and children. Jimmy B. Britt was a deputy U.S. marshall who drove Stoeckley to Raleigh to testify at the trial. On the way, says Britt, Stoeckley said she was in MacDonald's house the night of the murders. She gave details of the interior of the house.

A Florida Judge has ruled that even though proseuctors have obtained medical records from Rush Limbaughs' doctors, they cannot question the doctors about his medical condition or about what Rush may have told the doctors while they were treating him. Roy Black, Rush's lawyer, says:

We are pleased with the court's ruling upholding the patient's statutory right of doctor-patient confidentiality. We've said from the start that there was no doctor shopping but Mr. Limbaugh should not have to give up his right to doctor-patient confidentiality to prove his innocence.

The medical records that the State has seized and reviewed now for nearly six months show that Mr. Limbaugh received legitimate medical treatment for legitimate medical reasons. Mr. Limbaugh has not been charged with a crime and he should not be charged.

Congrats to Roy.

AOL news reports the passenger killed by air marshals in the jetway of an American Airlines plane in Miami was an 44 year old American citizen. His wife said he was mentally ill and hadn't taken his meds.

A witness said that the man frantically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757 and that a woman with him said he was mentally ill. The passenger, who indicated there was a bomb in the bag, was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said.

The marshals pursued and ordered the passenger to get on the ground, but the man did not comply and was shot when apparently reaching into the bag, Doyle said. Authorities did not immediately say whether any bomb was found.

CNN reports no bomb was found. Although the plane had arrived from Colombia, it was en route to Orlando. The man boarded in Miami.

Hearty congrats to defense lawyers Gerry Schargel and Jerry Lefcourt who won an acquittal today in federal court in New York for Murder, Inc's Irv Gotti (aka Irving Lorenzo) and his brother Christopher on money laundering charges.

Bump and Update: As I suspected, it was a disgruntled former employee who blew the whistle.

A former associate in trial attorney Geoffrey Fieger's firm said Friday that he and his wife each gave $2,000 to Democrat John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign on the promise that they would be reimbursed by the firm.....Joseph Bird, an attorney fired from Fieger's firm over the summer, told The Associated Press that about two weeks after he joined the firm in 2003, partner Ven Johnson came into his office, closed the door and told him that he was expected to give to the Edwards campaign.

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original post 12/1:

In what Michigan attorney Geoffrey Fieger says is a politically motivated act, the FBI and IRS today searched his law offices. Fieger is running for Michigan Attorney General.

Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service raided Fieger's Southfield office Wednesday night, seizing boxes of financial documents, Fieger said. He was not present. ''It's McCarthyism all over again,'' he said Thursday.

According to Fieger:

Rep. Randy Cunningham who resigned in disgrace after his guilty plea to bribery and related charges will cooperate with the feds in investigating others. He was a major Congressional drug warrior - in 1994 he voted for legislation carrying the death penalty for drug kingpins.

Then his son became one. In 1997, Todd Cunningham was arrested and charged in a conspiracy to fly 400 pounds of marijuana into an airport near Boston. He faced a five year mandatory minimum sentence. He cooperated with others in the conspiracy and in 1998, at a hearing that included a "tearful plea" from his father, was only sentenced to two and one half years.

In reporting on his son's sentencing, the AP noted (11/18/98) the elder Cunningham had some other trouble of his own that year:

by TChris

This is profoundly sad:

Relatives of Tracey Dyess, a teenage girl they say was repeatedly sexually abused since age 4 by father figures, cringed at the news that she will be locked up for at least 17 years, but they hope that the long prison sentence means she'll at least get good psychiatric care.

Dyess set fire to her home in Griswold, Iowa. She told the judge that she intended to kill her stepfather so that he could no longer molest her. Instead, the fire killed her sister and nephew.

Former DeLay aide and Abramoff associate Michael Scanlon pleaded guilty today to a five year count of conspiracy that included bribery of public officials and devising a scheme to defraud his firm's lobbying clients. The plea agreement called for $19 million in restitution. The agreement isn't up on the court's website yet, but with that amount of restitution, his sentencing guidelines would be at the maximum range of 5 years. [Update: Findlaw has it here (pdf).

The court agreed to defer his sentencing until his cooperation is over, which means if he tells the truth from the Government's point of view, the Government will file a motion before sentencing seeking a reduction below his guideline range. That is not likely to occur for some time, as the Court is going to hold status conferences every three months, and set the first one for March 1, 2006.

by TChris

Like O.J., Robert Blake didn't fare as well before a civil jury as he did in his criminal prosecution.

Eight months after Robert Blake was acquitted at a criminal trial of murdering his wife, a civil jury decided Friday the tough-guy actor was behind the slaying, and ordered him to pay her children $30 million in damages.

by TChris

People who call the police, and then invite them into their homes, knowing they the police might discover a large stash of a controlled substance, are nearly automatic recipients of "stupid criminal of the week" recognition. Here's the latest:

In retrospect, it probably wasn't such a good idea to call the police. Ronald Meyers summoned officers to his home in an upscale neighborhood Thursday morning, claiming that someone was trying to open his windows and that he could hear voices outside.

Responding officers found no burglar but asked if they could check inside, said Sgt. John Booth, a Palm Springs police spokesman. When Meyers, 59, let them in, officers allegedly found more than $100,000 worth of marijuana, he said.

by TChris

It's convenient for marijuana buyers to pick up a bag at the neighborhood convenience store, but a 19-year-old who allegedly sold weed at a 7-Eleven store was arrested after a customer called the police to report that the store was empty. The police found the store clerk sleeping in the back office next a quarter-pound of pot, a scale, and a smaller bag.