by TChris

Maurice Teague seems to have a fetish for children's socks -- he has more than 500 pairs. And when he can't buy socks from a kid, he steals them.

Teague was arrested for kidnapping and robbery after he grabbed a 9-year-old boy, carried him behind a grocery store, and stole his socks.

Police said the child was on his way home from the grocery around 6:30 p.m. when Teague asked to buy his socks for $5. The boy refused again when Teague offered him $10, and Teague picked him up, ran behind the store and pulled the boy's shoes and socks off his feet.

Teague dropped his ID, which the boy gave to the police, leading to Teague's arrest.

by TChris

Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton is under fire for bringing a weak case against Scott Peterson, but his problems don't end there.

In a six-page report that carries no legal weight, the Stanislaus County civil grand jury found that Brazelton committed nine acts of willful misconduct and violated the county's workplace security and anti-violence policy.

Reporters from the Modesto Bee were in Brazelton's office "reviewing receipts of county-issued credit cards to make sure officials weren't dipping into the till for personal use." The grand jury says that Brazelton pulled a gun from his holster and said, "This is what I would like to give" one of the reporters.

The second time, Brazelton is alleged to have walked into another office where employees were talking and simulated drawing a pistol and firing it at a trash can, repeating something similar to his original comment.

The district attorney is accused of having commented that he missed an opportunity to run down one of the reporters with his car when the journalist was crossing the street.

Brazelton, who denies the accusations, is also alleged to have tried to prevent staff members from cooperating with the investigation.

by TChris

Mixed verdicts have been returned in the corporate fraud case against Adelphia executives, but the company's founder, John Rigas, has been found guilty of "conspiring to loot hundreds of millions of dollars" from the company. His son, Timothy Rigas, was also convicted of conspiracy and fraud, while the jury has not yet been able to reach a verdict on most of the charges against another son, Michael Rigas. A fourth defendant, Michael Mulcahey, was acquitted on all counts.

Update (TL) : Congratulations to Mark Mahoney, NACDL member and former President of New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on his determined and brilliant defense of Michael Mulcahey, the only defendant acquitted in the Adelphia case.

Mulcahey and his tearful wife, Cathy, hugged. And one defense lawyer after another came by to congratulate Mark Mahoney, the Buffalo attorney who drew widespread raves for his closing argument in Mulcahey's defense.

The Judge in the Martha Stewart trial rejected Martha Stewar's motion for a new trial based on witness perjury.

Lawyers for Ms. Stewart, the former chairman and chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, had argued that her case should be retried because a government witness was charged with perjury several weeks ago. The witness, Larry Stewart, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of lying during his testimony about his role in analyzing ink notations on a document listing Ms. Stewart's stock holdings. Lawyers for Ms. Stewart and Mr. Bacanovic had sought a hearing to determine whether prosecutors knew that Mr. Stewart, who is not related to Martha Stewart, lied on the stand.

Martha will be sentenced July 16, most likely, to 10 to 16 months. At least half of the minimum, or 5 months, must be served in jail or a federal prison, most likely a camp. We wouldn't take anything for granted though, not after Lea Fastow's judge refused to recommend a camp for her, resulting in the Bureau of Prisons designating her to a downtown Houston federal detention center.

Ken Lay had a very productive first day in court. He only spent an hour in custody. He was released on a relatively minimal $500,000.00 bond. He can keep his passport because his work requires him to travel internationally. And, lucky for him, he needs no Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, because he did nothing wrong.

"It has been a tragic day for me and my family," Lay said at a news conference shortly after his court appearance. "An indictment came down that should not have occurred." While repeating his assertion that he took responsibility for Enron's collapse as chairman, "that does not mean I know everything that went on at Enron."

"I continue to grieve as does my family over the loss of the company, my failure to be able to save it," Lay said. "But failure does not equate to a crime. "I firmly reject any notion that I engaged in any wrongful or criminal activity," he added. "Not only are we ready to go to trial, but we are anxious to prove my innocence."

Mike Ramsey, Lay's lawyer, had a few choice words for the media as well:

Ramsey said he would push for the former Enron chief executive to go to trial ahead of other executives charged in the investigation. He maintains Lay did nothing wrong and cast blame on former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, who pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts in January. Fastow admitted to orchestrating partnerships and financial schemes to hide Enron debt and inflate profits while pocketing millions of dollars for himself. "Andy is obviously a liar and a thief," Ramsey said before entering the courthouse Thursday. "He admits that."

Former Enron CEO Ken Lay was indicted today. He's being allowed to surrender tomorrow. Bail is probably arranged, he'll be home for dinner. We have no problem with that, we just wish it were true for every defendant. We find this bit of info somewhat perplexing:

The foreman of the specially-called grand jury told Judge Milloy that at least 16 members were present and at least 12 voted for the indictment.

Does that mean it was not a unanimous grand jury vote? If the prosecutors can't convince all of the grand jurors in a one-sided proceeding at which the defendant has no ability to argue or present or challenge evidence, what does that say about the strength of the Government's case?

Skippy says, "osama bin laden still at large, but at least we got kenny boy!" A big congrats to Skippy who is about to celebrate his second blogiversary (y.w.c.t.p.). Go over and visit and push him over that 500,000 reader visit mark.

Skippy does a clever take on Crimes In the News, which we call Crimes 'R Us. Here's a snippet from Skippy:

a defiant scott petersen rejected accusations of war crimes and genocide in court thursday, telling a judge in his first public appearance since his capture seven months ago that the real "criminal" was kobe bryant.

saddam hussein said he was tired of one-night stands with "bimbos," wanted to find his soul mate and was even considering putting “horny bastard” on his business cards, according to testimony in his capital-murder trial wednesday.

One of the most high profile cases in the 1980's was that of New York lawyer Joel Steinberg, convicted of manslaughter for the beating death of his 6 year old adopted daughter, Lisa. His long time lover, Hedda Nussbaum, was also charged initially, but later, when she agreed to testify against Joel, charges were dropped against her. She was one of the most publicized battered women of that decade.

Steinberg has served 16 years of a maximum 25 year sentence and will be freed from jail today. Last year, he made headlines when it became known that he might have a job as host of a cable tv show. There was a huge uproar.

A spokesman for the show told Newsday that Mr. Steinberg will start as an intern working off the air and will earn $250 a week.

If you're not familiar with the case, all the gruesome details are here. Joel Steinberg was represented by New York defense lawyer Ira London, and Hedda was represented by Barry Scheck. The trial lasted three-months, and after eight days of deliberations, Steinberg was acquitted of second degree murder and convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Hedda went into treatment.

Update: Joel Steinberg's first day as a free man was a frenzy.

Under what evidence rule or exception did this testimony come in at Scott Peterson's trial today?:

Scott Peterson talked to a friend nine years ago about how he would dispose of a body if he killed someone, saying he would weight the body down and dump it in the ocean so the fish would eat it, a detective testified Tuesday. "He said he would tie a bag around the neck with duct tape," weight the body down and toss it into the ocean and "fish activity would eat away the neck and hands and the body would float up, no fingers, no teeth," making it impossible to identify, Detective Allen Brocchini said. Brocchini did not elaborate on how he learned of the 1995 conversation.

by TChris

Advice for murderers: wipe off the blood before you go shopping.

Wal-Mart workers called deputies after a blood-soaked man walked into the store and bought some clothes, bandages and trash bags around 4 a.m. He paid with a blood-stained $100 bill, they said, and drove off in a pickup.

Sheddrick Deon Bentley wasn't hard to find -- just look for the blood-soaked guy with the Wal-Mart bag. He's been charged with the second-degree murder of Cory Brightman, whose stabbed body was found in a garbage bin.

For the first time in an unrestricted interview, Ken Lay is speaking out about Enron. From Sunday's New York Times.

Now, on the eve of what may be the government's final decision on whether to charge him with a crime, Mr. Lay is talking for the first time about the company's collapse in 2001 and the scandal that enveloped it. In more than six hours of interviews with The New York Times, Mr. Lay remained steadfast in his expressions of innocence, even as he acknowledged, as head of the company, accountability for the debacle rests rightfully with him. ``I take full responsibility for what happened at Enron,'' said Mr. Lay, 62. ``But saying that, I know in my mind that I did nothing criminal.''

So whose to blame for the Enron fiasco, according to Lay?

As Mr. Lay describes it, the Enron collapse was the outgrowth of the wrong-headed and criminal acts of the company's finance organization, and specifically its chief financial officer, Andrew S. Fastow. He says that both he and the board were misled by Mr. Fastow about the activities and true nature of a series of off-the-books partnerships that played the decisive role in the company's collapse. Yet, Mr. Lay still argues that some of the company's most controversial decisions - including some that set up financial conflicts of interest for Mr. Fastow that could well be unprecedented in corporate America - had good reasons to be done, and can only be seen as mistakes in hindsight.

Lay's finances have changed dramatically the past few years:

by TChris

In an effort to convince a Magistrate to detain a suspect without bail, federal prosecutors typically give a preview of their evidence (sometimes accurately, sometimes wishfully) to demonstrate the strength of their case. The government previewed its case against David Passaro today while arguing that he should be detained pending his trial.

Three U.S. soldiers will testify that a former CIA contractor beat an Afghan detainee with a heavy flashlight 10 to 30 times and kicked the man so hard he came off the ground and later begged to be shot, a prosecutor said Friday.

The prosecutor said 82nd Airborne soldiers will testify that during one interrogation session, Passaro left the room and Wali begged one of the paratroopers guarding him "to please shoot me before the defendant returned."

Wali died three days after the alleged beating. The court has not yet ruled on the prosecution's request to detain Passaro.