Taking the California Court of Appeals suggestion, Director Roman Polanski has filed a formal request with the court in Los Angeles to be sentenced in absentia on his 1977 guilty plea to to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. The Court of Appeals decision (distilled here) said:

Without returning to the United States or dropping his battle against extradition, Polanski may, through counsel, request that the trial court
conduct the never-yet-held sentencing hearing in absentia pursuant to section 1193. If the trial court approves this request, then Polanski, through his counsel, will be able to obtain the evidentiary hearing that is so urgently required to establish the facts of what occurred in 1977 and 1978. The trial judge now presiding over the matter, Judge Espinoza, has already indicated
that at a sentencing hearing Polanski would be able to fully litigate the allegations of misconduct and a prior pledge by Judge Rittenband as to Polanski’s punishment.

Smart move, in my view. [More...]

This story out of Omaha is just unbelievable. Well, maybe not, after last year's revelation about Frank Pignatelli (see here and here.) But if two cases of using defense lawyers as snitches to make cases against their clients are a trend, this one needs to stop.

Terry L. Haddock, a 52 year old defense lawyer in Omaha, decided to wear a wire while visiting more than 30 times with Shannon Williams, an inmate at the Douglas County Jail in Omaha, and set him up for a money laundering Indictment. From today's news:

Bellevue Police Sgt. John Stuck testified last week that he equipped Haddock with a wire and recorded more than 30 jailhouse meetings between Williams and Haddock in 2009. In the meetings, Stuck said, Williams would use Haddock's cell phone to divvy up hundreds of pounds of marijuana and to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug money.

In their first jail meeting, Stuck said, Haddock informed Williams that he was not acting as an attorney and "would not do any legal work whatsoever for Mr. Williams." Williams disputed that. He said he hired Haddock while he was still out of jail, during his supervised release from a crack- cocaine-dealing conviction.

[More...]

A man who had been summoned for jury service was leaving the Las Vegas courthouse when shooting erupted outside. There's no video of the actual shooting, but he has audio of the gunshots -- and there sure were a lot of shots fired. He ends with, "I think they got him."

No motive has yet emerged for the shootings which claimed the life of a court security officer and the gunman, and injured a Deputy U.S. Marshal.[More...]

The FBI has a list of its top ten terror cases of the year. It was written before this weekend's Detroit plane incident, so I'd say the two biggest are David Headley and Najibullah Zazi. Tomorrow it will list its biggest fraud and corruption cases.

CBS posts its list of top 20 crime cases of the year, most I've never heard of. No mention of Bernie Madoff or Phil Spector's murder conviction. It does get Ft. Hood, Roman Polanski, the murder of Dr. George Tiller and Amanda Knox. It also includes the guy who allegedly tried to extort money from David Letterman.

And what about the Somali pirate? Plaxico Burress? Bernie Kerik? Any others you can think of?

The local tv station in Raleigh, NC, that originally reported Bernie Madoff's hospital visit was the result of an assault, is now reporting he fell out of bed and suffered facial bleeding as a result. His lawyer says he suffers from dizziness and high blood pressure.

The Bureau of Prisons has confirmed that Bernie Madoff has been transferred from the medium security prison section of Butner Correctional Complex to its Federal Medical Center. It won't say why, but months ago denied he had been diagnosed with cancer or was terminally ill.

The Federal Medical Center at Butner last week housed 946 inmates . It's an administrative facility that houses male inmates of all security levels.

Being sent to a medical center doesn't mean you're catastrophically ill. Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is serving his sentence at the Butner Medical Center, as is blind Sheikh Omar Ahmad Rahman (sentenced to life.)

A California appeals court has rejected Roman Polanski's bid to dismiss his 1977 case due to prosecutorial and judicial misconduct.

The 70 page opinion is here (pdf).

We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in applying the fugitive disentitlement doctrine and refusing to consider dismissing the action. In so doing, we do not disregard the extremely serious allegations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct that have been brought forward, but urge the parties to take steps to investigate and to respond to the claims.

[More...]

Cynthia Kouril writes at FDL about the Hiram Monserrate trial and sentence, complaining the judge doesn't get it:

Monserrate was charged with a felony, but convicted of a misdemeanor, so his maximum sentence was only one year. The judge however did not sentence him to anywhere near that amount of time, giving him probation and some anger management counseling. The judge DOES NOT GET IT.

It's Kouril who doesn't get it. That's the standard sentence for a first-time misdemeanor in New York. It's an appropriate sentence. The jury judge accepted there was an accident. He was convicted for the manner in which he forcefully made her go to the hospital, which she was resisting. Once outside, she calmed down, and they walked together in stride to the car. No more force required.

He was found not guilty of assaulting her with a knife. It was an appropriate sentence.

The best explanation of domestic violence fights I've found is in a Leonard Cohen song: [More...]

An appeals court in California today heard oral arguments in Roman Polanski's case. At issue was Polanski's request to dismiss the charges due to judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. A trial judge last year refused to hear the case because he was a fugitive. The grounds for the dismissal request were the new revelations in the film, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired".

Associate Justice Laurie Zelon asked the prosecutor why the district attorney's office had not investigated recent allegations of misconduct by a judge and prosecutor during Polanski's 1977 court proceedings.

"Doesn't the district attorney's office have an interest in finding out what happened here?" Zelon asked.

Deputy District Attorney Phyllis Asayama replied, "Yes, we are interested. But I'm not sure we have the proper agency to do this." She didn't elaborate.

[More...]

Italy insists Amanda Knox's conviction and 26 year sentence for murdering her roomate is fair.

Some think she has a good chance on appeal. Others say she was the victim of anti-Americanism and never stood a chance.

Washington Senator Maria Cantwell has problems with the verdict. [More...]

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has a new op-ed in the Washington Post explaining his grant of clemency to Maurice Clemmons, suspected of killing four police officers in Seattle.

He explains why he granted clemency to Clemmons, noting that no one objected and if the same information was available to him today, he'd make the same decision. Any fault, he says, lies with prosecutors' decisions in later years.[More...]

Tiger Woods will receive a citation for careless driving, no criminal charges will be filed. Woods has withdrawn from his tournament this week, citing injuries sustained in his car accident.

In other news, Roman Polanski won't be released until Friday.

Update: Is this really a video of Marilyn Monroe smoking pot? Looks like a cigarette to me, from the way she's holding it, but lots of folks say it's pot.