A California Judge has ordered convicted rapist Andrew Luster to pay . The amount includes compensatory and punitive damages.

The Washington Times has an update on the Sniper case, with details of rulings on recent motions favoring the defense.

Duane "Dog" Chapman, the bounty hunter who captured Andrew Luster in Mexico, was denied any of the forfeited bail money by a California judge today.

...an undisclosed amount [is] to be paid to the three women raped by Luster. The judge also said about $89,000 should be paid to the sheriff's office to recoup costs associated with the case and about $65,000 to the district attorney's office.

The article doesn't mention Luster's mother, who put up some or all of the million dollar bond, but we assume she lost as well.

We wonder if Dog will go after the Ventura County Sheriff's department to recoup some of his costs. After all, he did do their job for them.

Greg at Begging to Differ quotes reports that Carlton Dotson suggested in a jailhouse interview that he shot Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy in self-defense. Greg explains why, under Texas law, Dotson may have a valid defense. The source for the jailhouse interview reference is this Dallas Morning News article.

Former Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson, charged with murder in the shooting death of teammate Patrick Dennehy, said Wednesday that he felt his friend had betrayed him and suggested that he acted in self defense during a confrontation.

“I thought he was my friend but he betrayed me,’’ Mr. Dotson said in a jailhouse interview with The Dallas Morning News. “If someone points a gun at you and shoots and it doesn’t go off, what would you do? If someone is pointing a gun at you and they start putting more bullets into the gun, what would you do?’’

Greg points out that Dotson may also have an insanity defense:

In a different vein, the article also mentions that Dotson claimed to have been "hearing voices" and may have been anticipating "a spiritual war," so it's possible Dotson may have an insanity defense as well.

We've heard of prosecutors overreaching to get defense lawyers, but this is just ridiculous. If it wasn't in a major newspaper, we wouldn't believe it.

A prosecutor is threatening to have a defense attorney arrested for possessing file copies of the alleged pornographic photos he received in discovery from the state. These are copies of the photos of a young girl the state is charging were illegally possessed by the defendant.

A local attorney who is assisting a child pornography suspect in his legal defense says a prosecutor threatened him with arrest for possessing photos entered into evidence in the case.

Attorney Jonathan MacArthur said the threat was made by Clark County prosecutor Becky Goettsch, even though District Judge Lee Gates previously authorized MacArthur to possess alleged child pornography photos in order to assist his client's defense.

MacArthur said when Goettsch didn't like Gates' ruling, she then took it up with another district judge. That judge, Michelle Leavitt, threatened to hold MacArthur in contempt.

...Fellow defense attorneys labeled Goettsch's threat of arrest as outrageous. "It's infantile, it's wrong and it's petty," said Lawrence Goldman, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "There should be some common sense here," Goldman said. "It's either prosecutorial mania, an obsession with child pornography, or it's an opportunity for a prosecutor to be a jerk."

Las Vegas defense attorney JoNell Thomas, speaking on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, called Goettsch's threat "insane." "The tactic of threatening to have criminal defense attorneys arrested for doing their job is outrageous," she said.

The jury in the trial of the white Inglewood, CA police officer who slammed a black teen's head onto the hood of a car hood and punched him with his fist has ended in a hung jury. His partner was acquitted of filing a false police report over the incident.

The videotape looked pretty clear to us.

The video is of four to five cops surrounding a teenager on the ground who does not appear to be resisting. One officer picks him up and slams really slams his head into the hood of the car. Another cop punches him in the head. The video was taken by tourists.

The kid was limp when the cop pulled him up and slammed him against the car and then punched him. He also had already been handcuffed.

Here's what started the incident according to an article at the time in the LA Times (available now on Lexis :

"The encounter occurred last Saturday evening when Jackson and his father, Coby Chavis, were at an Inglewood gas station and two sheriff's deputies stopped to investigate Chavis' expired vehicle registration tags. Jackson was leaving the station's market, holding a bag of potato chips, when he saw the deputies talking to his father. Jackson tried to get into his father's car, ignoring deputies' commands to wait while they questioned Chavis, according to the officers and deputies."

All this over a teen eating a bag of potato chips who doesn't want to sit in a cop car because he hasn't done anything wrong. The cops, by the way, are suing the police department for racial discrimination saying they were treated more harshly than a black officer who had used excess force.

Update: The DA has decided to retry the officer.

Bump and Update: The inquest was conducted today and the family now agrees the death was likely a suicide: Relatives recognized the bedsheet as one coming from inside Mr. Golden's house. A video showed Golden's hands were untied and hanging down his sides.

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On May 28, 2003, Ray Golden, a 32 year old black man who was dating the daughter of a white policeman, was found hanging from a tree. Police initially ruled it a suicide. But the man's family and many in the small community of Belle Glade, Floriday say no way. They say Golden's hands were tied behind his back when he was found. The police say otherwise.

After much pressure from the NAACP, the state has agreed to hold an inquest today. However, the NAACP notes that it is not taking a position on the cause of death, only that it wants an investigation,

The case has drawn the attention of state and national NAACP officials, who will monitor the inquest. Immediately after the hearing, Circuit Judge Harold Cohen will rule whether it was a suicide or a suspicious death. He could direct a law enforcement agency to act on his findings.

There has been no documented lynching case in the U.S. for more than 20 years.

Bump and update: Authorities have confirmed that body found is that of missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy.

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Waco authorities are confirming that a body has been found southeast of Waco and it may be that of missing Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy:

"We can confirm that there has been a body found, but we have no further information about that at this time," sheriff's Capt. Paul Wash said. "It was in the same general vicinity that other searches have been conducted this week."

Dennehy's parents say that Carlton Dotson, who has been arrested for Dennehy's murder, provided police with three locations where Dennehy's body might be found. Dotson insists he did not confess to killing Dennehy.

Richard Jewell is back in court, seeking the confidential sources of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, which he says he needs to proceed with his libel suit against the paper, for its coverage of the 1996 Atlanta bombings in which it was reported that Jewell was a suspect.

The matter is back in the trial court after an Appeals Court reversed its ruling:

The panel said Mather should balance Jewell's need for the information with the public policy that favors protecting journalists' confidential sources by scrutinizing each specific allegation of libel. If the alleged libelous statement cannot succeed as a matter of law or if Jewell could prove it using alternate means, then the court should rule against disclosure of confidential sources. But if a particular libel allegation was legally viable, and the identity of the sources was relevant, material and the only means to obtain other admissible evidence, Mather should order disclosure. Atlanta Journal-Constitution v. Jewell, 251 Ga. App. 808 (2001).

Jewell is still represented by libel guru Lin Wood, who sucessfully represented John and Patsy Ramsey, in several of their suits. He is also suing author Dominick Dunne on behalf of Gary Condit.

A safari being promoted by Las Vegas producer Michael Burdick, on which men would be able to shoot women with paintballs at a cost of $5k and $10k, was actually a scam to sell Burdick's paintball video, "Hunting Bambi."

Burdick should have quit while he was ahead. As soon as we saw Oscar Goodman, the great mayor of Las Vegas (and former stellar criminal defense lawyer) on O'Reilly, promising to shut him down and charge him, we knew it would happen.

....Las Vegas officials investigated and found that the purported safaris were nothing but a hoax to promote the ''Hunting for Bambi'' videos that Burdick sells. The videos show nude women being hunted by men.

The footage in the videos ''was all staged,'' Mayor Oscar Goodman said Thursday. ''There were actors and actresses and there wasn't even the real shooting of paint balls.''

John Redlein, an assistant city attorney, said Burdick offered the hunts at high prices to discourage bookings, and told investigators his Internet site could not even accept credit card charges in the amount necessary to reserve a hunt. ''He's told us in great detail ... that it's a scam to sell videotapes,'' Redlein said.

Burdick is now charged with a misdemeanor, operating without a license.

Goodman derided Burdick for promoting "abusive, violent, assaultive behavior."Burdick could face six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. "He's going to be punished for it, "the mayor said. The summons accuses him of "advertising, promoting and offering for sale paint ball activity videos, paint ball hunts and merchandise,"and operating an Internet Web site" advertising his business through the media without the proper city license."

"It's a joke and a fraud,"Goodman said of the"Hunting for Bambi"enterprise that was touted by promoter Michael Burdick on a Web site and publicized nationally. "I'll do everything I can to see this man is punished for trying to embarrass Las Vegas as a result of a lie and a scam,"Goodman said.

Before admitting the safari was a hoax, Burdick had insisted that the hunts were real, even inviting a reporter to witness one. Sounds like Burdick got outfoxed by the good Mayor.

In Peace-loving Nuns Have Become Cause Célèbre, Rocky Mountain News columnist Mike Littwin explores the absurdity of the plight of three nuns in Colorado who are being sentenced today in federal court for damaging federal property. They are expected to receive between five and eight years.

Our story today is of the three nuclear nuns, who, in the name of peace and in the name of Jesus, committed this crime at a Minuteman III site in northeastern Colorado: They cut a chain-link fence; they banged a missile silo with a hammer; they poured some of their own blood on the silo; they waited in their hazmat suits to be taken away.

And if your government has its way, the nuns, who have dedicated their lives to saving the lives of others, will spend the next five to eight years in federal prison. Sentencing is set for Friday. Protests are set at 49 nuclear silos statewide for Saturday.

Here is one of today's news article on the case.

Update: The nuns have been sentenced: Hudson - 30 Months, Gilbert - 33 Months,Platte - 41 Months. They will also pay $3,080 in restitution.

Remember this case? It seems like another lifetime that we were dissecting every nuance in it daily. But, there is news today. The Judge has agreed to allow the defense to examine the bodies of Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn child.