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When the Catholic Church's sexual-misconduct scandal became nationwide front-page news six years ago, the Rev. Philip Lee Erickson of the Archdiocese of Louisville was just 34. The young priest had just obtained the canon-law license that would let him function as a lawyer within the church's internal legal system when the cover-up of priestly sexual abuse in Boston and elsewhere, mostly against boys and young men, became widely reported in early 2002. "Newly ordained, as the saying goes, you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," Father Erickson told The Washington Times in a telephone interview.

Teacher Misconduct Cases in FloridaLast Updated: 6:44 PM Jan 3, 2008 Reporter: Chris Casquejo Last school year, more than 4,000 teachers in Florida were investigated for misconduct, but just 300 disciplinary actions show up on a state website. The numbers do little to comfort parents. “Anything that’s inappropriate with a child should be taken care of. They should be barred by the school board where they should not be able to teach again,” says Shelley Gandy. Key lawmakers say the days of quietly firing a bad teacher are over. A Senate study on teacher misconduct found that some Florida school...

HARARE (AFP) - President Robert Mugabe has appointed a three-man tribunal to probe misconduct charges against Zimbabwe's suspended attorney-general Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, state radio reported Thursday. Gula-Ndebele was suspended by Mugabe on December 14 after he was accused of meeting with former banker James Mushore, who was wanted by police for siphoning foreign currency from Zimbabwe. "President (Robert) Mugabe (has) sworn in a three-member tribunal to investigate allegations being levelled against attorney-general, Gula-Ndebele," the report said. "Gula-Ndebele was suspended on allegations of conduct contrary to or inconsistent with duties of a public officer." According to the constitution of Zimbabwe, the president...

The horrific crime shocked a nation. Three young boys, cub scouts, were tied up, murdered and their naked bodies dumped in a drainage ditch. As a Deep South community bayed for justice, attention focused on a group of misfit teenagers, heavy metal fans accused of killing the children in a Satanic ritual. The case became a sensation at a time when a 'Satanic panic' over cults was gripping 1990s America. All three were found guilty. Jason Baldwin, then 16, and Jessie Misskelley, 17, got life sentences. Damien Echols, 18, was put on death row, where he remains. Now evidence, including...

July 17th, 2007 - Washington, D.C. - The United Kingdom House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges has released a report today concerning MP George Galloway and his misconduct related to the Oil-for-Food Program. The Parliament report was highly critical of Galloway's activities related to the Program, ruling against Galloway on every charge. Finally, the Committee recommends that he be suspended from the House of Commons for eighteen working days – which is reportedly "one of the most severe [penalties] given to an MP" – and requests that he apologize for his misconduct. In arriving at its conclusions, the...

A University of Colorado professor who once compared some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi could learn within three weeks whether he can return to the classroom — or whether the university will pursue sanctions including dismissal. University President Hank Brown received a report Tuesday from a faculty committee regarding its hearing on alleged research misconduct by ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill. Brown has 15 business days to determine how to proceed, the university said. If Brown decides the are no grounds for dismissal, he could return Churchill to the classroom and close the case, or he could recommend sanctions...

I don't want to go into details on this board, but suffice it to say I was recently manhandled/assaulted by 2 police officers without justification(like I said I want to keep the details thin, for privacy/legal reasons). I suffered no lasting physical injuries. I am not really sure where to go with this(if anywhere). The way I view it I have 3 non-mutually exclusive options. A)File an internal affairs complaint B)Pursue a civil suit against the local government. C)Pursue a civil rights violation case with the DOJ. Like I have said before, the assault was 100% unjustified, and I have...

WASHINGTON - Military recruiters have increasingly resorted to overly aggressive tactics and even criminal activity to attract young troops to the battlefield, congressional investigators say. Grueling combat conditions in Iraq, a decent commercial job market and tough monthly recruiting goals have made recruiters' jobs more difficult, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. This has probably prompted more recruiters to resort to strong-arm tactics, including harassment or criminal means such as falsifying documents, to satisfy demands, GAO states. The report was done at the behest of lawmakers who were concerned that not enough was being done to curb aggressive recruitment practices....

BOULDER, Colo. - An investigation of a professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi found serious cases of misconduct in his academic research, a University of Colorado spokesman said Tuesday. One member of the five-person investigative committee recommended that ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill be fired, and four recommended he be suspended, university spokesman Barrie Hartman said. Churchill has denied doing anything wrong. He said earlier Tuesday that he had yet to see the report. University officials had earlier determined Churchill could not be fired for his comments about the terrorist attacks, but they launched an inquiry...

NOBLESVILLE -- Laura Wilcox, an 18-year-old senior at Westfield High School, has been charged with two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. Police say she had sexual relations with a 15-year-old boy at his home. The boy's parents alerted the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department to the situation, said county prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp. Sheriff's Department Maj. Mark Bowen said she turned herself in to the Sheriff's Department Saturday and posted a $10,000 bond for her release from the Hamilton County Jail. Both charges are Class C felonies. According to court documents, the incident was reported to the Hamilton County Sheriff's...

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - An Orange County judge was publicly admonished Tuesday for allegedly having his clerk and bailiff help run two rental properties. Judge John M. Watson sold the properties in La Habra and Whittier last year, according to the Commission on Judicial Performance. The misconduct took place between 2000 and 2004, according to the commission. "A judge may not use his or her office, staff or public property and/or resources under the judge's control for personal, non-governmental purposes," the commission said in a statement. A public admonishment is a step below public censure. Watson declined comment, saying...

The disciplinary arm of the N.C. State Bar dropped charges of felonious misconduct against two former Union County prosecutors Friday because of a 1999 clerical error at the state Supreme Court. The State Bar had charged Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in a 1996 death penalty case. The ruling Friday marks the second time that Honeycutt and Brewer won on procedural grounds before the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission, which sits as judge and jury in disciplinary cases. . . . Prosecutors around the state are concerned that the case is damaging their reputation and...

The N.C. State Bar has challenged the dismissal of disciplinary charges against two former Union County prosecutors, saying they committed felonies to win a death penalty conviction. Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer were charged with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in the 1996 murder trial. Honeycutt, the former district attorney in Union County, has since returned to private practice; Brewer is now a District Court judge in Richmond County. Last week, the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission cited a missed deadline in dismissing the case against them. But the bar's lawyers say there is no deadline to bring charges because the...

DALLAS -- A judge welcomed a former fugitive back to her courtroom with balloons, streamers and a cake before sentencing him to life in prison. "You just made my day when I heard you had finally come home," Judge Faith Johnson told Billy Wayne Williams, who had been convicted in absentia of aggravated assault after he disappeared a year ago. "We're so excited to see you, we're throwing a party for you." Williams, 53, who has a criminal record dating to the 1980s, was accused of choking his girlfriend until she passed out. He failed to appear for his trial...

BOSTON (AP) -- A former investment firm manager who confessed to stealing more than $27 million from investors, including his mother, was set to plead guilty on Tuesday. Bradford Bleidt, 51, manager of Allocation Plus Asset Management, attempted suicide in November after he mailed taped confessions to securities regulators, family members and business associates. He was scheduled to plead guilty in U.S. District Court on Tuesday afternoon, according to the court calendar. Bleidt, of Manchester-by-the-Sea, is charged with 115 counts of mail fraud and a single count of money laundering. It was not immediately clear whether he would plead guilty...

I secured a short reprieve from the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy for collecting examples of federal judicial misconduct in preparation for a congressional hearing to be initiated by Congressman Trent Franks (R - AX).

Bill Cosby has drawn a good judge in Philadelphia. Last March, in a civil lawsuit, Andrea Constand alleged that Cosby had drugged and groped her at his home. Constand's suit also claimed that she had been contacted by 12 women who were willing to come forward and allege that Cosby sexually assaulted them in a similar manner. Attorneys retained by nine of the women had tried to keep the names of their clients a secret for a host of reasons, one of which was fear of a deteriorating bipolar condition brought on by intense media scrutiny. U.S. District Judge Eduardo...

Cop faces charges for slapping foreigner MAEBASHI -- A police assistant inspector faces charges for repeatedly slapping a male foreigner feigning sleep while in detention, police said. Documents accusing the 39-year-old assistant inspector of abusing his position as an officer have been forwarded to the Maebashi District Public Prosecutors Office. The assistant inspector has also been fined 10 percent of his monthly wage for one month. He admits to the allegations. "I've done something terrible," he said. Police said the assistant inspector slapped a Brazilian man in his 30s four or five times to the head while the suspect was...

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. report on peacekeeper sex abuse released Thursday describes the U.N. military arm as deeply flawed and recommends withholding salaries of the guilty and requiring nations to pursue legal action against perpetrators. Those recommendations and several others come after repeated allegations that peacekeepers exploited the very people they were sent to protect. The report described a troubled system where peacekeepers have often "failed to grasp the dangers confronting them, seduced by day-to-day conditions that can be viewed as benign." It said abuses had been reported in missions ranging from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor,...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...