Frank Quattrone, the former banker who made a fortune taking hot tech companies public, has been found guilty of obstructing federal investigations into 1990's stock offerings.

Jurors delivered their verdict after deliberating about seven hours over two days, concluding the ex-banker tried to block grand jury and regulatory investigations by forwarding an e-mail to co-workers reminding them to "clean up" their files. It was the second trial for Quattrone, 48, who will likely face one to two years in prison at his sentencing, set for Sept. 8. The first trial ended in a hung jury. Quattrone, who grew up in a working-class neighborhood and later earned $120 million in one year as a banker, showed no emotion as the verdict was read. But he later hugged his crying mother.

Quattrone was represented at both trials by San Francisco's John Keker, one of the finest litigators in the country.

We are obviously grossly disappointed. I feel like we failed Frank," attorney John Keker said outside the federal courthouse where both trials were held. "He's innocent."

by TChris

Jayson Williams escaped a manslaughter conviction for a number of reasons, but his "soft brown eyes" may have played a key role.

Williams's escape route from doom is due, in part, to a bumbling prosecution, his relentless team of elite lawyers, a convoluted law outlining negligence and his soft brown eyes. All of this provided a diligent jury with reason to doubt the courtroom depiction of Williams as a dark criminal mind.

"He didn't have the look of a cold-blooded killer," a juror, Angela Pravata, told reporters. "I didn't see it in his eyes."

Williams didn't testify, but he didn't need to. His eyes told his story for him.

by TChris

Swapping a Twinkie for a bologna sandwich has become more burdensome for students in the Sharyland (Texas) School District after a 17 year old shared his marijuana brownies with friends. Vexed school administrators hit upon a fool-proof plan to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again: no more food sharing without the school's permission.

Right.

And on those rare occasions when a student bothers to ask permission, what criteria will the food police apply? Just say no ... to brownies? Baked goods? A banana might seem safe, but what if it's injected with LSD?

by TChris

Sharon "Bad" Luck robbed a bank in Fort Worth, then went to her own bank in Burleson to deposit the stolen funds into her account. Unfortunately for Luck, the dye pack that the Fort Worth teller handed her with the money exploded in her purse as she entered the Burleson bank, leading to her quick capture.

Last week's winner.

by TChris

The jury hearing charges against Jayson Williams -- the NBA player turned analyst who shot his driver with a shotgun -- found Williams not guilty of aggravated manslaughter and could not reach a verdict on the charge of reckless manslaughter. Williams was convicted of four lesser charges that related to tampering with evidence and trying to conceal his role in the shooting. An excellent result for Williams and his lawyer, Billy Martin, given the facts of this difficult case.

Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. TalkLeft background on the case is here and here and here.

by TChris

Even adults sometimes respond to police interrogations by confessing to crimes they didn't commit. When the police interrogate a child, without a parent or lawyer present, the risk of a false confession is alarming.

Georgia attorney Gerald Word says the police questioned his twelve year old client for four hours, outside the presence of his parents and without a lawyer, before the twelve year old allegedly admitted his involvement in strangling an eight year old neighbor.

Word said it was only after lengthy questioning Tuesday that the boy made a statement that led investigators to believe he killed Amy Yates. The boy, whose name is not being released by authorities, was then charged with murder.

The boy claims he was "repeatedly called a liar" during the interrogation, and was not read his rights before being questioned, Word said. He never admitted to harming the girl, he said.

Few adults are capable of withstanding coercive interrogation techniques, and they often have trouble grasping the meaning of a Miranda warning. It is absurd to think that a twelve year old would understand his constitutional right to remain silent or his right to counsel, and it is equally absurd to think that a twelve year old's decision to participate in a police interview is truly voluntary. When the police interrogate a young child without a parent's permission, any resulting statements should be presumed to be unreliable.

Word thinks the Georgia legislature should enact a law that requires the police to obtain a parent's permission before interrogating a child. He's right, and other states should do the same.

Where we last left off with Lea Fastow, wife of former Enron CEO Andrew Fastow, her plea agreement for a five month sentence had fallen apart when the Judge refused to go along. She withdrew her guilty plea and trial was set to begin June 2.

But, where there's a will, there's a way. The Government has now dismissed the felony charges against her and obtained a Superseding Indictment charging Lea with a misdemeanor tax count, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail.

by TChris

The jury deciding the fate of former NBA player and analyst Jayson Williams advised the court that it has agreed on six of eight charges, but cannot reach a unanimous verdict on the rest. The jury may be finding it difficult to decide on the two most serious charges -- aggravated and reckless manslaughter -- after agreeing that Williams committed less serious crimes as he tried to cover up his role in the shooting of driver Costas "Gus" Christofi.

Judge Edward Coleman instructed the jurors to continue their effort to reach a verdict on all counts. The jurors will enter their third day of deliberations tomorrow. TalkLeft background on the case is here and here.

by TChris

There never seems to be a shortage of stories about judicial corruption or incompetence in Louisiana (recent TalkLeft posts on the subject are here, here, and here). Here's another:

U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan on Wednesday ordered former [Louisiana] District Judge Ronald Bodenheimer to serve three years and 10 months in prison and pay $50,000 for taking bribes from a bail bondsman, scheming to plant drugs on an FBI informant and plotting to fix a child custody case.

Prosecutors agreed to recommend a 3-1/2 year prison term in exchange for the judge's cooperation in its investigation of courthouse corruption, but Judge Berrigan busted the deal by adding four months to the recommended sentence.

Berrigan ... said Bodenheimer's cooperation wasn't enough and increased his sentence to reflect the seriousness of trying to get someone falsely arrested. She gave Bodenheimer a chance to withdraw his guilty plea, but he turned it down.

by TChris

Zero tolerance policies are great for public employees, who can follow them while doing zero thinking. Highland Park, Texas has zero tolerance of people who don't pay their traffic tickets -- they all get arrested, no matter how silly the arrest might be.

When [the police] found that 97-year-old Harriette "Dolly" Kelton had an outstanding warrant for failing to pay a traffic ticket, they handcuffed her, put her in the squad car and hauled her to jail.

Dolly's son notes that his mother is a tad forgetful, an understandable infirmity in a person who has nearly reached the century mark. A reasonable officer would have reminded Dolly that she needed to pay the ticket. Instead, the police wasted time and resources taking her into custody and processing her into the jail. The cost in manpower undoubtedly exceeded the amount of the unpaid fine, making this a poor investment for taxpayers, apart from creating a public perception that the Highland Park police are too dim-witted to exercise discretion or common sense.

James Kilgore, the last fugitive member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group responsible for kidnapping and then converting Patty Hearst in the 19790's, has been sentenced to jail for his participation in some of the group's activities:

The last fugitive member of the Symbionese Liberation Army to be brought to justice was sentenced Monday to 4 1/2 years in prison for passport fraud and possession of a pipe bomb. James Kilgore, 56, belonged to the 1970s radical group that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst. He was on the lam for more than two decades before he was captured in 2002 in South Africa, where he was working as a professor under an assumed name.

Kilgore is expected to be sentenced next month to an additional six years in prison after pleading guilty last year to murder charges in the shotgun slaying of a bank customer during a 1975 SLA holdup. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel sent Kilgore to prison for possession of a bomb found in his apartment in 1975, and for using the birth certificate of a dead baby to obtain a passport.

Kilgore apologized for his acts and said the SLA's violent protests against the Vietnam War were "misguided and misdirected."

More background here and here.

Michael Jackson is changing lawyers. Mark Geragos and Ben Brafman say they are stepping down. Because of the gag order, and we're sure, attorney-client privileged matters, they can't say why.

Word is that Thomas Mesereau, Jr, also of LA, who previously represented Robert Blake until the two had a falling out, will be taking their place.