by TChris

Edward Leak Jr., a Chicago police officer, has been charged with contracting for the murder of Fred Hamilton, who told Internal Affairs that Leak was stealing money from Leak's family's funeral home, where Hamilton worked as a driver. The police responded to the report by obtaining a warrant for Hamilton's arrest on a charge of extortion. Before Hamilton could be arrested, Leak took out a $500,000 insurance policy on Hamilton's life, and Hamilton was killed. One of the people arrested for the shooting says he was hired by Leak.

I'm a little Rove'd and Lexis'd out right now, so on to something different: Gwinnett County, Georgia. I think it must be the water. First, there was the Runaway Bride. Then there was this story about the police who tasered a handcuffed and foot-bound arrestee five times in 60 seconds, after which he died. Before that there was this story about really dumb school officials.

Now, there's this incredible story of a 60 year old man who was up to his eyeballs in medical debt and saw some tv news about bomber Eric Rudolph. He decided he envied Rudolph because the Government was going to be giving him three squares and a roof for the rest of his life. So he decided to copy him and kill a federal employee. He hatched his plan, and one day when the mailman arrived to deliver his mail, he shot him 7 times. Unbelievably, the mailman lived.

AP reporting on a ruling just out in the Natalee Holloway Case:

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (July 14) - A 17-year-old Dutch youth must remain behind bars as authorities try to find out what happened to Natalee Holloway, who was last seen six weeks ago leaving a nightclub, an appeals court said Thursday. The court also ruled that there was not enough evidence to detain two Surinamese brothers in connection with the disappearance of the 18-year-old Alabama woman.

During a closed hearing Tuesday, a judge heard appeals from a defense lawyer seeking the release of Joran van der Sloot - the son of a judge in training on the island - and from prosecutors asking for the re-arrest of Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and his brother, Satish, 18.

Background here and here.

WorldCom former exec Bernie Ebbers, 63 has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud. (Note: CNBC which first reported the sentence said 30 years, but later articles are saying 25, so I've changed it.)

This is a ridiculous sentence for a non-violent crime. The judge may have well as imposed the 85 years sought by the government - both are an effective life sentence.

I doubt he'll go to a federal prison camp on a 30 year sentence. To put a 63 year old, first offender behind the walls at a medium security prison for an economic crime is cruel. Hopefully, he'll be sent to a medical facility.

What will they do to Ken Lay? Give him life plus cancer?

America, prison nation.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Sunday evening, the LAPD SWAT team encountered a man with a gun who was allegedly using his 19 month old child as a human shield. According to the LAPD spokesman, the gunman fired on the officers and they fired back killing both the gunman and the child. CNN.com carried video of the story since yesterday along with its story here.

Bratton said the fatal shooting was only the second time a hostage had been killed since the department formed its SWAT team in 1967. In that time, SWAT officers have responded to 3,800 calls involving hostages or people barricaded inside buildings.

It was the second time in nine months that Los Angeles officers have fired on an assailant holding a hostage. In November, police shot a man who held a pregnant woman by the neck outside the Mexican Consulate. Officers pulled the woman away unharmed and the man later died.

Update: Bernie Ebbers gets 25 years.

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Two days before his sentencing, convicted former WorldCom Exec Bernie Ebbers has settled his civil suit with the government, and will be giving up almost all that he owns:

A judge gave her blessing Monday to a civil suit settlement under which former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers will forfeit nearly all his cash and personal assets - as much as $45 million.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote gave preliminary approval to the deal two days before Ebbers, 63, faces sentencing, and almost certain lengthy prison time, on his criminal conviction in the record WorldCom fraud. The civil settlement, which springs from a suit filed by angry former investors in the toppled telecom, will leave a modest Mississippi home for Ebbers' wife and roughly $50,000 for her to live on.

"Basically we left them with their furniture and the silverware," said Sean Coffey, a lawyer for New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, the lead plaintiff in the investor suit.

by TChris

Bay City, Michigan resident Willie Lee filed a lawsuit against members of the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team (cutely acronymed BAYANET), alleging that police officers jumped out of a van and started beating him as he was chatting with his brother and a friend. The police claim they "were doing 'street ops' in a heavy drug-trafficking area" when they stopped to investigate an illegally parked car (yeah, right) before a struggle ensued. Lee was charged with resisting and obstructing, but the officers failed to appear at Lee's trial, causing the judge to dismiss the case.

The criminal charges were dismissed a year ago, but were resurrected shortly after Lee filed his lawsuit. (The charges were dismissed "without prejudice," meaning Lee's right to be free from double jeopardy hadn't kicked in.) Lee believes the police are retaliating for his decision to sue them. He has a point.

Rush Limbaugh's medical records were turned over to the Palm Beach state prosecutor's office today - less some records his lawyer, Roy Black, claimed were irrelevant and embarassing. The records are being sought in an investigation into whether Rush illegally purchased (not sold) painkillers.

I am not comfortable with this at all. It's far too slippery a slope. While many liberals would like to see Rush taken down, this is not the way to do it. The man was addicted to pain pills, he entered and completed treatment. Who is to say how many pills he needed to combat his pain? And why should the Government, rather than the patient, be the arbiter of that?

Instead of clamoring for the Government to fry Rush, liberals should be demanding that the Government keep its laws off our bodies.

Via Huffington Post....which is very, very fast with news updates. It's now one of my first stops. Lil' Kim was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison for perjury today.

Actually, the judge did her a favor by adding the extra day. Had her sentence been just one year, she would have had to do the whole thing. Good time, which is 54 days a year in the federal system, doesn't apply to sentences of one year or less. Now, she will only have to do ten months.

Lil' Kim had some supporters at court:

One man's T-shirt read "Free Lil' Kim" and "Real Men Don't Snitch."

One of my favorite sweatshirts (I even got one for the TL kid): "Nobody talks, everybody walks."

Update July 13, 4:45 pm: Texas searchers are giving up and going home. And the judge will issue a ruling Thursday on whether either or both the Kalpoe brothers must return to jail and whether Joran van der Sloot's father can continue visiting him in jail.

Update 8 pm: The news continues to dwell on growing resentment of Arubans to the Holloway criticism of their legal system. On Greta: The prosecution is appealing the decision to release the brothers. The appeal will be decided by three judges from Curacao after a hearing.

As a sign of how little real news there is, Greta will be "re-walking Natalee's mother through her first 24 hours" after she learned of Natalee's disappearance.

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7/6/05 10:00 am

Natalee Holloway's parents finally may have overstayed their welcome and overplayed the sympathy card with Arubans. Resentment is building.

A latent but growing resentment here became evident for the first time when more than 200 people, some wrapped in Aruban flags, said they were incensed by statements made by the mother of a missing American teen. Those assembled outside the colonial courthouse in this Caribbean capital Tuesday night said they fear their tiny island nation is falsely being portrayed as not doing enough to find Natalee Holloway, the Alabama girl who vanished May 30 on a graduation trip with her high school class.

larger version

Natalee's mother may have gone too far with these comments about the release of the Kalpoe brothers:

by TChris

Further proof that no good deed goes unpunished:

A San Marcos man was arrested after rescuing a swimmer from the swirling waters near a restaurant on the San Marcos River over the weekend. Police say Dave Newman, 48, disobeyed repeated orders by emergency personnel to leave the water. The police report does not mention Newman's rescue of 35-year-old Abed Duamni of Houston on Sunday afternoon.

"I was amazed," Newman said after getting out of Hays County Law Enforcement Center on $2,000 bail Monday morning. "I had a very uncomfortable night after saving that guy's life. He thanked me for it in front of the police, and then they took me to jail."

I'm getting quite a few e-mails letting me know that murder suspect Joseph Duncan, accused of kidnapping 8 year old Shasta Groene, and being investigated for the posible death of her brother Dylan and perhaps other family members, was a blogger, and that he blogged about TalkLeft. Here's his blog and here's his TalkLeft-related post: