Free Republic

WATERLOO, N.Y. --New York state has agreed to pay most of the legal fees incurred by counties in opposing Indian efforts to put land into federal trusts. Seneca County had been seeking reimbursement from the state since the trust process began a year ago. The state originally refused to pay, citing an opinion by the state attorney general's office. However, Seneca County Attorney Steven Getman said Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said this week that state law allowed reimbursement to counties for legal costs associated with defending the claims. Getman said the state agreed to pay both future costs and approximately...

WATERLOO, N.Y. The Cayuga Indian's 25-year-old land claim will not get a second look from a federal appeals court. Seneca County Attorney Steven Getman says today's decision by the Second U-S Circuit Court of Appeals is another victory for property owners. The Cayuga Indian Nation of New York and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma had asked for a rehearing after the court's split decision in June. The decision said the tribe was not entitled to a 248 (m) million land claim judgment awarded by a lower-court jury. Today's decision cited an earlier U-S Supreme Court ruling in a separate case...

The US Supreme Court has announced it will not hear an appeal of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling throwing out the Cayuga land claim. Seneca County Attorney Steven Getman says the ruling means the end of the more than two decade old land claim. The Cayuga and Seneca-Cayuga Indians had asked the Supreme Court to review the lower court ruling, saying the Appeals Court incorrectly cited the Sherill case involving the Oneida Indians in throwing out the quarter billion dollars awarded the Indians. The focus of the battle between the Indians and governments in Seneca and Cayuga Counties...

AUBURN NY--A federal Department of Interior official said the U.S. Supreme Court's city of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation decision applies to the Cayuga Nation's purchase of land within their land claim area on the open market. Based on the Sherrill decision, when taxes are not paid, the Cayuga Nation's property would be subject to foreclosure, Associate Deputy Secretary James Carson wrote in a Sept. 22 letter to U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-New Hartford. Boehlert had contacted the department of behalf of Seneca County attorney Steven Getman. Carson wrote that questions about the legality of the tribe's bingo halls in...

It's official. Death is no longer a possible fate for three of four defendants in the January 20007 torture slayings of a Knox County couple. Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price has filed notice of an intention to seek the death penalty as punishment in the deaths of Channon Christian, 21, and boyfriend Christopher Newsom, 23, only against alleged ringleader Lemaricus Davidson. Price this month notified attorneys for Davidson's brother, Letalvis Cobbins, and Cobbins' friend, George Thomas, that he will push for a fate in their cases no more than life without possibility of parole. Because Cobbins' girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman,...

Bradley Abelow, President, MF Global Inc., is a Senior Advisor at the Firm. Mr. Abelow was a Partner at NewWorld before joining MF Global, where his long-time associate Jon Corzine is CEO. Prior to co-founding NewWorld, he was Chief of Staff to Jon Corzine, then Governor of the State of New Jersey, where he oversaw state-level environmental programs, and earlier served as Treasurer of New Jersey. Before that, Mr. Abelow was a General Partner and Managing Director of The Goldman Sachs Group, where he held a variety of senior leadership positions. Mr. Abelow has been active in environmental matters for...

A mother who "deliberately and unjustifiably frustrated" a father's attempts to visit his child was appropriately stripped of child support and primary custody, an appellate panel in Albany has held. The Appellate Division, Third Department, unanimously affirmed a Schuyler County Family Court judge in a case where the custodial mother had repeatedly hindered her estranged husband's efforts to establish relations with his daughter, even though the father made no attempt to enforce his visitation rights for six years. Luke v. Luke, 510880, centers on a child born in 2001 to Melvin W. and Heidi L. Luke. The Lukes, who are...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The City Attorney’s Office recommended that 46 people charged with crimes related to the LAPD raid on the Occupy L.A. enacampment not be allowed back to City Hall to continue protesting. Charges were filed against protesters who either resisted arrest or had prior criminal records. “We believe it is appropriate since they were arrested for violating the law in that area that they be ordered by the court not to go back to that area,” Thomas said. He likened it to a husband accused of beating his wife, saying it would be reasonable to request the...

Attorney General Eric Holder to hold a press conference at 2pm

Breaking on Fox ...

Police officials say this afternoon that while no arrests have been made in Tuesday's car bombing, at least two men are being targeted, including one whose estranged spouse is represented by Erik Chappell. Monroe police and federal agents may be close to making a move soon, authorities said. On the day his car exploded with his two sons inside, Mr. Chappell was in Monroe County Circuit Court on a hearing involving child support payments. Later that afternoon, as he was driving on E. Elm Ave., taking his sons to football practice, the Volvo exploded. Authorities have said that they are...

A local attorney and his two sons were severely injured in a blast when a bomb denoted in their car as they were driving on E. Elm Ave. late Tuesday afternoon. Law enforcement officials and attorneys said the victim is Erik G. Chappell, whose law practice is based in Sylvania, Ohio, but who lives in the county. His two sons, believed to be aged 11 and 13, were seriously injured and all three are in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, Toledo. “This was not an intent to injure; this was an intent to kill,” said a family friend who declined...

In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. Eleven crimes in the United States have been linked to Operation Fast and Furious up to this point. Issa said he expects as the investigation in the operation continues, more crimes connected to Fast and Furious will come to light and be exposed. This is not surprising, considering out of 2500 weapons the Obama Justice Department allowed to...

As DB readers know, NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, along with AGs Beau Biden of Delaware and Catherine Cortez of Nevada, have been opposed to the nationwide foreclosure fraud settlement being led by Iowa AG Tom Miller (read: Once Upon A Time In Foreclosure Fraud), who as Matt Taibbi pointed out has not-so-conincidentally increased his campaign contributions from the finance sector this year by a factor of 88! Today, NY Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson reports Schneiderman has been getting heavy pressure from the Obama administration (read: Geithner's Foreclosure Fraud Whitewash) to drop his opposition to the deal, which many experts...

Wells, like many attorneys who plunge into this protracted and rewarding but frustrating legal venture, is morally and philosophically opposed to the death penalty. Although 34 states have it, there are other reasons Minnesota should continue to oppose it. Several credible national studies conclude, and nearly 90 percent of the nation's top criminologists in a recent survey agree, that the death penalty has very little, if any, effect at all on deterring violent crime. So agrees the law enforcement community. A national poll of police chiefs placed it dead last, pun intended, on ways to reduce violent crime. The chiefs...

Link only - Teachers' attorney: Atlanta test cheating report inaccurate, falsely accuses the innocent

A high-flying attorney worked as a prostitute and offered to perform a sex act on a man for $50, officials say. Reema Bajaj, 25, was linked to prostitution by police who were investigating a separate case involving child pornography. The law expert is said to have met with a sex customer within 1,000ft of a school during August 2010, said DeKalb police Sgt. Bob Redel. Bajaj, from Sycamore, Chicago, pleaded not guilty last week, according to her attorney David Camic of Aurora. She is charged with two misdemeanours and one felony count, officials said. DeKalb County Assistant State's Attorney Julie...

Disgraced former attorney Aaron Biber, imprisoned for raping a 15-year-old friend of his son, has been ordered to pay $15 million to a trust in the teen's name for acts a judge deemed "utterly intolerable to the civilized community." Hennepin County District Judge Denise Reilly ordered Biber, 48, formerly of Shoreview, to pay $10 million in punitive damages and $5 million for assault, battery and emotional distress inflicted on the teen, leading up to and including the October 2009 assault. Attorney Michael Schwartz, trustee for the teen, said he and other attorneys will immediately work toward collecting on the civil...

Muslim Brotherhood-tied CAIR and their operative, Lamis Deek, know the power of Islamic Jew-hatred as commanded in the Islamic texts and teachings, and instead of fighting it, they mine it. Exploit it. They know the power of their hate. The vile inciter and demagogue Lamis Deek's history is well documented. It is not surprising that she is the attorney for the Muslim Brotherhood-tied MAS group building a super-mosque on a quiet residential street in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. CAIR's Great FBI Scare Lecture Investigative Project on Terrorism A recent "Know Your Rights" presentation by the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR)...

During a Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) grills Attorney General Eric Holder on the Justice Department's Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner. As Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Issa has issued a subpoena to the Department of Justices' Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for documents related to the highly controversial "Project Gunrunner."

Two women are charged after a video showing a brutal attack on a teenage girl at a Baltimore-area McDonald's restaurant surfaced on the internet Friday. According to the Baltimore Sun, police have charged a 14-year-old girl as a juvenile, and charges are pending for her 18-year-old accomplice. The attack reportedly occurred April 18 at the 6300 Kenwood McDonald’s location. The Sun is also reporting that State’s Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger says that the assault may be classified as a hate crime because the attackers were both black, and the victim white.

Original title: WI GOP rep. questions state DOJ’s ethics after state attorney advises fleeing Dems, shows political support in private e-mail. Wisconsin state Rep. Steve Nass is calling for an investigation of state Assistant Attorney General Thomas Bellavia after he sent an e-mail offering advice to two of the 14 fleeing Democratic senators on how to avoid getting caught by Wisconsin law enforcement. The e-mail also shows where Bellavia’s political support lies. “I am a political supporter of your current efforts regarding the budget repair bill,” Bellavia wrote in a February 27 e-mail to Democratic state Sens. Joe Erpenbach and...

Suspected Tucson gunman Jared Loughner has been indicted on 46 new charges, including the murders of a federal judge and an aide to congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The new indictment, by a federal grand jury in Arizona, is the first step in a formal Department of Justice process to decide whether to seek the death penalty against the 22-year-old.

New York Judge Allows Beheading Suspect to Be Own AttorneyAssociated Press Published January 24, 2011 BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A former New York television executive accused of beheading his estranged wife has been granted permission to act as his own lawyer for the remainder of his murder trial. In a reversal Monday, a judge allowed Muzzammil Hassan to take over as lead counsel from attorney Jeremy Schwartz. The two have been at odds over Hassan's defense since the trial began in Buffalo last week. Schwartz will stay on to help. **SNIP** Hassan is accused of killing Aasiya Hassan inside the Muslim-oriented...

A well-known public defender who has represented controversial clients, including the "Unabomber," has been appointed to defend Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of shooting Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) this weekend. Judy Clarke will appear with Loughner, 22, at his initial court appearance Monday afternoon and the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix has recommended that she be appointed as his attorney, according to the Arizona Republic. CNN also reported Clarke's role. Loughner faces two federal murder charges in connection with the killings of federal judge John Roll and Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman. He also has been charged with...

Freehold Attorney Fined $2,500 for Trapping, Drowning Squirrels

UPDATE: Secretary of state's response, calling Mitchell's letter "conjecture and rumor," posted at right.So says Cleta Mitchell, the same woman who tried to get Scott Ashjian, the Tea Party of Nevada candidate out of the race, in an astonishing letter: As Sharron Angle's campaign attorney, I am sorry to report that the Democrats and their cronies are up to their same old tricks, of trying to manipulate the election in hopes of skewing the results in their favor.Two days ago, the Democratic Secretary of State announced that voters can be provided "free food" at "voter turnout events."

At last, someone who speaks using the language of the ConstitutionBy: Cheryl K. Chumley Special to The Examiner 09/09/10 2:48 PM EDT To say Virginia’s attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, is the only voice in the commonwealth’s political wilderness who speaks of limited government principles and proper constitutional authorities would be an overstatement. There are, after all, a few others, namely Del. Bob Marshall, a Republican who often bucks his own party to pursue priorities that lead his detractors to label him right-wing, and his less courageous or outspoken supporters to watch from the wings and wait for some constituent wave...

All our young lives we’re taught to seek out the authorities when we’re in trouble. For young women who are victims of rape, this includes reporting the crime in the face of one’s own personal shame and agony to seek justice where it is due and prevent the perpetrator from raping again. In a suburb of Pittsburgh, a startling lawsuit turns this conventional wisdom upside down. And, according to high-profile criminal attorney, Rene Sandler, no matter how the suit plays out, it reveals a disturbing lack of judgment on the part of those authorities we’re taught to trust. The suit...

COLUMBUS, Ga. — Orly Taitz, the so-called "birther" attorney who’s led charges across the country against President Barack Obama's legitimacy to hold office, continues to defy a federal court order to pay $20,000 in sanctions and to challenge the judicial system. The California attorney/dentist/real estate agent has risen to the national stage with her arguments that Obama can't be the president because he wasn't born in America. Two of her cases in Columbus challenging Obama's legitimacy to hold office were tossed out by U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land. Then her second client, Capt. Connie Rhodes, wrote a letter to...

You're flipping channels late at night and come across what can only be a preview for the latest Public Access show. Turns out it's an ad for an overeager lawyer hoping to separate themselves from the (wolf) pack. A friendly tip from the Urlesque staff: don't try so hard. We've compiled the Web's worst lawyer commercials to show you that just because you went to law school (presumably via e-mail), doesn't mean you can't call someone an "illiterate boob" on television.

A lawmaker in Michigan is calling on the state attorney general to investigate the arrests of four Christians at a recent Arab festival in the city of Dearborn, saying they were just "engaging festival goers in conversation about religion on public property."The call comes from state Rep. Tom  McMillin, who has introduced a resolution to that effect.His concern is over the arrests of four people during the Arab Festival in Dearborn, where police have been accused of enforcing Islamic law.The officers arrested the Christian missionaries and illegally confiscated their video cameras, which were being used to record the events, according to the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Mich., which is representing the...

A former Justice official who claims the administration backed off a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party for racial reasons is set to testify Tuesday before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The testimony from J. Christian Adams, who resigned from the Justice Department last month in protest of the administration's handling of the case, comes after he made a series of explosive allegations during an interview with Fox News last week. He said the administration abandoned an open-and-shut case of voter intimidation and that Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez gave false testimony before the commission in...

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Monday he is working with officials in Utah and Mexico to create a Utah-specific guest-worker pilot program that he believes could serve as a more forward-looking course for immigration reform than the path Arizona has followed. “I do feel very strongly that those who are going to be opposed to the Arizona-style law have to have a counterproposal. Just saying ‘no’ isn’t going to cut it,” he said. “Utah can take control of its immigration destiny by having a comprehensive plan in place that addresses things like employment and security.”

J. Christian Adams was proud to be a Department of Justice attorney. He believed he was serving his country by prosecuting those who wished harm on others. He strongly believed in what he did. To this DoJ official, his profession wasn’t a job but a calling. Until earlier this month when he suddenly resigned. The reason? His superiors told him to drop a case against the New Black Panther Party, even though the “case was the simplest and most obvious violation of federal law I saw in my Justice Department career.” Reading Adams’ account of what happened, I can only...

ITHACA, NY--The City of Ithaca, Police Chief Ed Vallely, Deputy Chief John Barber, Deputy Chief Pete Tyler and the Tompkins County District Attorney's office discriminated against Ithaca Police Officer Chris Miller and other white male officers, Miller is alleging in a $17 million lawsuit filed in federal court May 20. The lawsuit alleges they increased their discrimination against Miller after he filed human-rights complaints and retaliated with baseless accusations, threats of indictment and termination, harassment, greater scrutiny, and unjustified and unlawful discipline, including a bogus investigation of him in 2009. The suit also names the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association and...

Sacramento -- Attorney General candidate Kamala Harris is battling increasing criticism of her performance as San Francisco district attorney both at home and on the campaign trail with only eight days left before the primary. On May 20, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ripped into Harris, saying she violated defendants' rights by failing to disclose to defense attorneys damaging information about a police drug lab technician who's under investigation for allegedly skimming cocaine from evidence files. Problems intensified for Harris last week when The Chronicle disclosed that a toxicologist at the San Francisco coroner's office had been labeled...

Civil Rights: The Justice Department explains that it dropped a Black Panther voter-intimidation case because of lack of evidence. Pay no attention to the thugs outside the polling place. Yet another reason Eric Holder must go. On Election Day 2008, New Black Panther Party members King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Sha-bazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint with civil violations by "allegedly" violating the Voting Rights Act through intimidation, threats and coercion as they stood outside a Philadelphia polling place. It was what Bartle Bull, a former civil rights lawyer and publisher of the left-wing Village Voice,...

A trial attorney with the Department of Justice’s Voting Rights Section has resigned, citing concerns about the government’s refusal to prosecute a case involving voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party. A letter of resignation from a former Justice Department employee makes clear DOJ has refused to allow attorneys in the Voting Rights Section to testify before the congressionally-chartered bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, despite subpoenas that could result in their being held in contempt.

“We’re going through!” Commander Richard Blumenthal’s voice was like thin ice breaking. He wore his full-dress uniform, with the heavily braided white cap pulled down rakishly over one cold gray eye. “We can’t make it, sir. It’s spoiling for a hurricane, if you ask me.” “I’m not asking you, Lieutenant Berg,” said the Commander. “Throw on the power lights! Rev her up to 8,500! We’re going through!” The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. Blumenthal stared at the ice forming on the pilot window. He walked over and twisted a row of complicated dials. “Switch on No. 8 auxiliary!” he...

Connecticut’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, having just been caught in a BIG LIE about military service during the Vietnam war, is now considered damaged goods, and I mean DAMAGED GOODS BIGTIME. Even with any support coming to him from the state of Connecticut employees unions, he will be remembered for this brand new scandal.

A key House Republican on Friday said that Attorney General Eric Holder "doesn't deserve" to keep his job because of his handling of the failed Times Square bombing attempt. House Homeland Security Committee ranking Republican Pete King (N.Y.) said that Holder's refusal to say that radical Islam motivated the alleged attacker, Faisal Shahzad, makes him an incapable attorney general.

The Manchurian President… Are attorneys Barack and Michelle Obama currently licensed to practice law? Was Barack Obama ever a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago? In recent days, these questions have once again gone viral on the Internet. . . .

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has rejected a request from Gov. Tim Pawlenty to sue over the new federal health care law. Instead, Swanson said Monday she will file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the federal government in a lawsuit filed by 13 state attorneys general. The Democratic attorney general sent the Republican governor a letter saying a lawsuit isn't warranted because health care fits squarely within the federal government's authority to regulate interstate commerce.

James O'Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was "framed" by the media and the U.S. attorney's office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday. The same day the man who first published James O'Keefe's explosive videos exposing wrongdoing at community organizer ACORN came to his defense Monday, claiming the conservative filmmaker "sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney" while the prosecutor made his case to the media, the U.S. attorney involved stepped down. O'Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary...

LITCHFIELD, Conn. – Rip Torn was so intoxicated when he broke into a Connecticut bank carrying a loaded gun that he thought he was home, taking off his hat and boots and leaving them by the door, according to court records. The 78-year-old actor was wearing the same battered boots Monday when he was arraigned on several charges after spending the weekend in a police holding cell near his hometown of Salisbury, in northwestern Connecticut. Torn, who did not enter a plea, was released on $100,000 bond a few hours later and waded through a phalanx of media to a...

Attorney in Ark. Recruiters Shooting Case Wants MoneyThe Associated Press Friday, January 08, 2010 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The attorney for a Memphis, Tenn., man charged with killing a soldier at a Little Rock recruiting office wants up to $30,000 from the state for the defense. Attorney Claiborne Ferguson is asking a judge to order the Arkansas Public Defender Commission to pay for expert witnesses and investigators. Ferguson represents Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad on capital murder and attempted capital murder charges in the June 1 shooting death of Pvt. William Long of Conway and Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula of Jacksonville. The...

  MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - A Memphis attorney has admitted to biting off part of a man's nose during a confrontation at a popular Midtown restaurant.According to a lawsuit filed by Greg Herbers, Mark Lambert bit off and swallowed part of his nose during a dispute last June at Dish on South Cooper Street.Lambert is a trial attorney with the Cochran Firm.      The incident at Dish began in the men's room when Herbers became annoyed because the urinal and stalls were occupied.Herbers says two men were together inside the same stall. He says Lambert carried on a conversation with...

Melodee Hanes, Baucus' former state director and now his live-in girlfriend, reportedly met at least twice with the Montana Democrat's divorce attorney to talk about the Baucuses' divorce eight months before the senator and his wife separated. The last person to know that Sen. Max Baucus wanted a divorce may have been his wife of 25 years. It appears that Wanda Baucus was in the dark even as a member of Baucus' staff -- Melodee Hanes, the woman who is now his live-in girlfriend -- was plotting out the senator's life without a wife. Hanes, Baucus' former state director, reportedly...

A hiring lawyer from Greenwich, Conn., wrote to The Ethicist of the New York Times with this question: Is it ethical to recommend rejection of members of the Federalist Society simply because you disagree with their conservative politics? The Ethicist, Randy Cohen, said politics should not be a factor.... The lawyer, who made recommendations on summer and full-time associates, had noted the review was intended to take account of judgment and personality. The Ethicist countered that reasonable people differ over politics. “I am tempted to believe that those whose politics differ from mine lack ‘judgment and personality’ and taste in...