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The state’s top drug prosecutor was fired on Friday, hours after reports were published that he was under investigation for possessing child pornography. Assistant Attorney General James Cameron of Hallowell, who worked as the drug prosecution coordinator for the Attorney General’s Office, had been on paid administrative leave for several months, according to one law enforcement source.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A $100 million lawsuit claiming that NBC prompted the suicide of a former Texas prosecutor who was caught up in its popular sting series "To Catch a Predator" is moving ahead after a ruling by a U.S. federal judge on Tuesday. Louis Conradt, a 56-year-old assistant district attorney, shot himself in November 2006 after he was confronted at his Terrell, Texas, home by police officers. They were accompanied by an NBC news crew that was there to film his arrest."To Catch a Predator," a segment of NBC's "Dateline" newsmagazine program, lures men to a house with...

NEW CITY, N.Y. - An ex-prosecutor and former PTA president who is also the wife of a suburban police chief has been charged with having sex, smoking marijuana and drinking with high-school-age children. Beth Modica, 44, a former assistant district attorney in Rockland County and Queens, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to counts including statutory rape, sex abuse and endangering children. Her hands were cuffed in front of her in court, where the indictment was unsealed. She later posted $75,000 bail. Her husband is police chief of Spring Valley. He is "not implicated whatsoever," Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said....

Anwyn has an excellent post today from the “Facts You Don’t Need to Know” file of the Los Angeles Times.Anwyn chose to focus on a story the paper recently ran on the prosecutorial record of Fred Thompson. I read that article and meant to comment on its flippant dismissiveness of Thompson’s stint as an AUSA. Some of the lines in the article are blatantly designed to elicit cheap snickers from leftists, like this one:"But Thompson’s charm did not work on U.S. District Judge Frank Gray Jr., who presided over nearly all of his cases. A liberal Democrat who had worked...

One theory for Alberto Gonzales's unexpected survival -- and/or, the president's apparent determination to keep him -- comes from a perhaps equally unexpected quarter. Writing in The Weekly Standard, Tod Lindberg, a Fellow at the Hoover Institution, says Gonzales's departure would be a "catastrophic defeat" for the administration. How so?Democrats with good memories, such as former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, who served on the House Judiciary Committee when it voted to impeach Richard Nixon in 1974, recall with precision the sequence of events that led to the resignation of the 37th president of the United States. In brief: Then-Attorney General Richard...

A "career Justice Department prosecutor" identified in a news report as a client of alleged Washington madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey has been dead for nearly three years, the Justice Department said Tuesday. An ABC News report Friday on Palfrey's client list included mentions of NASA officials, military officers, chief executives and a "career Justice Department prosecutor." The network did not publicly identify the individuals.

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, March 31, 2007 – The military commissions case of Australian detainee David Hicks, which concluded last night with a sentence of nine months imprisonment, was a fair proceeding that established a good basis for future commissions cases, the chief prosecutor for the Defense Department said here yesterday. Hicks, 31, was sentenced according to a plea agreement after pleading guilty to one charge of providing material support for terrorism. The commission recommended a seven-year sentence, which was the maximum allowed under the agreement, but another part of the agreement guaranteed a suspension for any portion...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top aide to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, the Justice Department said on Tuesday, the latest fallout from the firing of federal prosecutors that has embarrassed the Bush administration and prompted calls for Gonzales to step down. Lawmakers are investigating whether the dismissal last year of eight prosecutors, some of whom had been criticized by Republicans, was a politically motivated interference in federal prosecutions by the White House. The Justice Department said Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Gonzales, had resigned, effective immediately. A department official said Sampson had stepped down because of his...

The Mexican drug runner whose testimony sent two Border Patrol agents to prison for shooting him in the buttocks brought drugs into the United States more than once, thereby diminishing his credibility as a witness in the investigation, according to a California congressman. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., presented new evidence in a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday that revealed what he says was U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's deliberate attempt to mislead the public about Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila's involvement in the transport of a second load of drugs in October 2005.[snip].... ....[snip]But the Drug Enforcement Agency found that Aldrete-Davila brought in another...

Rudy Giuliani is in. Suggested campaign slogan: "He dealt with Brooklyn. He can handle Baghdad.'' He's not a sure thing; he has enough baggage to fill the cargo hold of a cruise ship. His sundry personal-life issues bother social conservatives; the gun control stance dismays the Second Amendment wing of the party; the pro-choice opinions alarm the evangelicals. That leaves about 47 Republicans, right? After all, it's just a party of cousin-marrying yahoos who'd sooner shoot up Planned Parenthood than vote for one of those fish-on-Friday types. Right? No. Voters are more flexible and forgiving than you might expect. And...

New Ethics Charges for Duke Prosecutor Wednesday January 24, 2007 3:01 PM By AARON BEARD Associated Press Writer RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The state bar has added ethics charges to a complaint filed against the prosecutor who brought sexual assault charges against three Duke lacrosse players, accusing him of withholding DNA evidence and making misleading statements to the court. The new charges by the North Carolina State Bar against Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong were announced Wednesday and could lead to his removal from the state bar, according to a copy of the updated complaint. Nifong's office arranged for...

NEW YORK - It's a tabloid writer's dream. There's a boastful pimp, a federal prosecutor turned tough-talking defense lawyer and a drop-dead gorgeous woman once touted as New York City's top prostitute. Their lives converge at a spacious Manhattan loft that housed a high-priced escort service a mere three blocks from City Hall. "Crime. Sex. Unforgettable people doing unforgettable things," said Barry Agulnick, lawyer for Jason Itzler, the pimp. "This case probably has more of the Hollywood element than any other I've had. It's got a show biz aura to it." The case took an intriguing turn this week when...

The district attorney in the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case said he has asked for a special prosecutor to guarantee a fair trial. The lawyer for Mike Nifong said because of accusations against Nifong resulting from the case, he felt he would be a distraction. He asked North Carolina's attorney general to name a special prosecutor.

A Thurston County senior deputy prosecutor found himself on the wrong side of the law Sunday, caught in a women's bathroom at Qwest Field having sex. .... snip ..... during the Seahawks game against Minnesota on Sunday afternoon, .... snip ....there was a long line of women waiting to use the facilities. They were all asked to wait until deputies removed the man .....

Parents in danger: The boy breaks free of duct tape, plunges knife five times into the man's back CEDAR CITY - Police in southern Utah are calling a 17-year-old boy a hero after he fatally stabbed an armed intruder who broke into his family's home early Wednesday. Iron County Sheriff Mark Gower described the boy as a level-headed kid "who, in my opinion, saved his family's lives." It all began when a 19-year-old Las Vegas man, who was recently fired from a construction company owned by the family, broke into their home at 2650 N. 2200 West, near Cedar City,...

WASHINGTON - A prosecutor said Monday that a Bush administration official chose the interests of lobbyist Jack Abramoff over those of the public and should be convicted of covering up what he had done. David Safavian, the former chief of staff at the General Services Administration, "was trying to hide a secret, inappropriate and unethical relationship with Mr. Abramoff," prosecutor Nathaniel Edmonds told a federal jury in final arguments. Edmonds said that every public official has "moments of truth" in which he can act ethically or unethically and that Safavian failed the test by lying to the GSA's ethics officer,...

HOUSTON - Yet another clash of Enron trial titans is on the horizon, but it may be less explosive than the first. While jurors deliberate the outcome of the fraud and conspiracy trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, Lay is on trial again without a jury on charges stemming from his personal banking. The 64-year-old former chairman spent six days on the witness stand during the conspiracy trial, often combative and contentious with federal prosecutor John Hueston, who secured the indictment against Lay nearly two years ago. Lay is expected to square off...

A man is accused of rape. Even if he is innocent, his reputation is forever smeared. Bettina Arndt examines whether either party should be named in sexual assault cases. There is a businessman in Toowoomba who's had a very lucky escape. He's just suffered the horror of being accused of rape but at the end of his trial last month he was acquitted by the jury. The alleged victim in 1998 reported the man to her church and five years later to the police, claiming he'd had sex with her 17 years earlier, when she was 14. But his real...

U.S. Supreme Court Reports KLOPFER v. NORTH CAROLINA, 386 U.S. 213 (1967) 386 U.S. 213 KLOPFER v. NORTH CAROLINA. CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA. No. 100. Argued December 8, 1966. Decided March 13, 1967. Petitioner's trial on a North Carolina criminal trespass indictment ended with a declaration of a mistrial when the jury failed to reach a verdict. After the case had been postponed for two terms, petitioner filed a motion with the trial court in which he petitioned the court to ascertain when the State intended to bring him to trial. While this motion was being...

HOUSTON - Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling instigated a massive fraud before the company collapsed in one of the biggest corporate scandals in U.S. history, a federal prosecutor said on Monday. Lay and Skilling committed crimes "through accounting tricks, fiction, hocus-pocus, trickery, misleading statements, half-truths, omissions and outright lies," prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler told jurors and a packed courtroom in closing arguments. "In this courtroom, ladies and gentlemen, the cover stories have been blown. Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling are still clinging to the cover stories," she said. On a large screen, Ruemmler displayed for...

HOUSTON - Federal prosecutors sought Thursday to torpedo Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay's image as a company champion, trying to show he used the ailing energy giant to bail himself out of personal financial woes in 2001. Lay obtained more than $70 million in loans from Enron throughout 2001 and repaid most with company stock, even as he encouraged employees to buy more shares. Lay didn't disclose those stock sales publicly because regulations required that sales of shares back to a company be reported only in the year after they occur. Unlike his co-defendant in his fraud and conspiracy trial,...

A prosecutor said he plans to file tax evasion charges against some 200 doctors in Los Angeles County who allegedly bilked insurers and the state out of $200 million with phony billings. The physicians are on a list of suspects identified by the medical fraud unit of the district attorney's office, which was created in 2003. "It's staggering. It's disgraceful," Deputy District Attorney Al MacKenzie said. "You have one doctor alone who got $23 million in five years from the workers' comp system." The unit seeks tax evasion charges against physicians rather than undertaking prosecutions for medical fraud. "The advantage...

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...

WASHINGTON – A Texas prosecutor has issued subpoenas for bank records of a defense contractor involved in the bribery case of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham as part of the investigation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. District Attorney Ronnie Earle issued subpoenas last Thursday for California businessmen Brent Wilkes and Max Gelwix, records of Perfect Wave Technologies, Wilkes Corp. and ADCS Inc. in connection with a contribution to a fundraising committee at the center of the investigation that led to DeLay's indictment on money laundering charges. Perfect Wave contributed $15,000 in September 2002 to Texans for a Republican...

NEW YORK - A Pakistani man went on trial Wednesday on charges alleging he agreed to help an al-Qaida operative planning a chemical attack against Americans sneak into the United States. Uzair Paracha, 25, is accused of agreeing to support the plot during meetings with two al-Qaida operatives and his father, a businessman held at Guantanamo Bay. "This trial is about the defendant's role in helping al-Qaida penetrate this country and attack the United States from within its own borders," Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Bruce said in his opening statement. Bruce said Paracha was trying to help Majid Khan, an...

Attorneys for Lewis "Scooter" Libby are likely to question whether the political bias of news outlets involved in the Leakgate case played a role in testimony by their reporters against top White House officials, reports the Wall Street Journal. "Just wait until defense counsel starts examining their memories and reporting habits, not to mention the dominant political leanings in the newsrooms of NBC, Time magazine and the New York Times," warns the Journal in an editorial on Friday. NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert - the star prosecution witness against Mr. Libby - should offer particularly fertile ground on this...

We have been hearing for a long time what a terrible thing it is to reveal the name of a covert C.I.A. agent -- and it is a terrible thing because that can be a life-and-death situation for the agent exposed and a devastating setback for this country's ability to get people in other countries to supply intelligence. But it was quite an anticlimax when the man who is accused of doing that -- Lewis Libby on Vice President Cheney's staff -- is not even charged with the crime for which a special prosecutor was appointed, with extraordinary powers and...

WASHINGTON - A Texas prosecutor has subpoenaed the head of a liberal activist group and records of political contributions from mostly Republican state judges in advance of a hearing Tuesday to decide who should preside over former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's criminal case. Prosecutor Ronnie Earle on Friday subpoenaed Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org, a liberal group that took an active role in the last presidential campaign and generally opposes Republicans and their policies. DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, requested the removal of state Judge Bob Perkins because the judge has made 34 contributions since 2000 to Democratic and...

Any advice? They are notorious for doing a lot of nothing in Louisiana. It is a destruction of intellectual property issue.

The Movie: Ronnie Earle, on a Mission from God The Texas DA is inspired by the Bible to prosecute Tom DeLay. A new film featuring Travis County, Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle as he pursued the investigation that led to the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay portrays Earle less as a partisan figure than as a messianic leader on a mission to rid American politics of the "evil" influence of money. A copy of the still-unfinished film, entitled The Big Buy, was obtained by National Review Online Friday. On several occasions in the film, Earle engages in monologues on...

Federal Prosecutor in West Virginia Leaves Office The Associated Press Published: Aug 1, 2005 CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The chief federal prosecutor for southern West Virginia abruptly left office Monday, and a Justice Department official would not comment on the departure. A call to U.S. Attorney Kasey Warner's home was not immediately returned. Warner, 53, was appointed four years ago by President Bush. His office prosecuted several vote-buying cases this past year in some Democratic counties, landing guilty pleas from a sheriff and a police chief, among others. Defense attorneys have complained that investigators looking to catch people buying and...

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Two fishermen found a laptop computer at the bottom of a river that belonged to a county prosecutor who has been missing for 3 1/2 months, police said Monday. The laptop, which was missing its hard drive, was found Saturday in the Susquehanna River under a bridge, Bellefonte police said. The fishermen turned it over to state police who determined it belonged to Centre County District Attorney Ray F. Gricar. Authorities had searched the river several times already. Dive teams searched it again Saturday and Sunday but found nothing else. The computer's hard drive had either fallen...

“Top Cheney Aide Among Sources in C.I.A. Story” is the headline the Associated Press chose for its article on now-famous journalist Matthew Cooper’s first-hand account of his testimony before the grand jury investing the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity. But the real story is that Karl Rove has been further vindicated. Though the ultimate arbiter of any legal issues will be special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and the aforementioned grand jury, the political case against Bush’s right-hand man is quickly crumbling. Cooper’s story—on Time’s new cover—confirms that Rove was not “shopping” for an outlet to “out” Plame, but that he was...

From here in heartland America, I'm winging a message eastward. It's addressed to my brothers and sisters of the mass media as they scrunch up their brows and artfully work their jaws, seeking to understand and explain what Karl Rove knew about Valerie Plame and when he knew it, assuming he knew much of anything, and whom he told, if he told anybody, and who heard, and who else knew it and why. And my message? A terse one: Just shut up, wouldja? Unfortunately, I already know the answer to such an excellent and timely question. The answer is a...

Why is special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald pursuing so zealously the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame, since it is all but impossible to prove that the leaker or leakers committed a crime? So why is Fitzgerald acting like Inspector Javert in "Les Miserables"? The answer may lie in a sentence Walter Pincus of The Washington Post wrote on June 12, 2003. President Bush mentioned the British findings in his State of the Union address in January 2003. In his leaks to Pincus, and earlier to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Wilson claimed Bush knew this was false. The key...

If you want sure proof of America's moral inversion, consider this: For allegedly refusing to tell a lie, George Washington became a man of legend. For telling the truth, Karl Rove became Public Enemy No. 1. Let us review the summer's pre-eminent political scandal. Two years ago, Karl Rove cautioned Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper against believing a story detailed by former diplomat Joseph Wilson. Wilson wrote in The New York Times: (a) that he, Joseph Wilson, had been dispatched by Dick Cheney to conduct a secret mission to Niger where he was to ascertain whether that nation had sold...

Columnist Robert Novak has made a career for himself as a human flamethrower for conservative causes. Yet, even Novak appears surprised at the mounting cost of his disclosure in 2003 of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. It was classic Novak: a hatchet job directed not at Plame, but at her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The firestorm that erupted has consumed millions of dollars in investigation and litigation costs and has wreaked havoc with the career not just of Plame (who had to leave the CIA) but of two reporters who were hauled into court and...

A lawyer for presidential adviser Karl Rove has disclosed that his client spoke with a Time magazine reporter just days before the name of a CIA operative was leaked to the media, but he did not leak the confidential information. Rove attorney Robert Luskin said that Rove did not reveal any secrets, and, furthermore, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has assured him that the adviser is not a target of his investigation. According to Luskin, Rove spoke to Time reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003 - a week before media reports revealed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife...

ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruba's chief government spokesman said late yesterday that three young men detained in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager could be formally charged as soon as Monday. Spokesman Reuben Trapenberg did not clarify what charges would be filed against the three. Earlier, Aruba's attorney general, Karin Janssen, said the young men had been charged with murder since their arrest three weeks ago. "The three have been charged with the murder of Natalee Holloway from the beginning" of their arrest 10 days after the young woman went missing May 30, she said in a recorded interview. "At the...

LOS ANGELES - A prosecutor told a judge Wednesday that actor Tom Sizemore violated his probation by trying to falsify a urine test for drugs. Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney said Sizemore, 43, also failed to report to his probation officer, did not advise authorities of his new address and missed drug rehab counseling sessions. Outside court, Sizemore denied the allegations. "I have been clean and sober and they are pandering to the city attorney," said the actor, who has appeared in such films as "Black Hawk Down" and "Saving Private Ryan." If a judge determines he violated probation, Sizemore...

President Bill Clinton told NBC's Brian Williams tonight charges brought against him by the House of Representatives were false, contradicting a plea bargain deal he made with Independent Counsel Robert Ray that he admit he gave false testimony under oath to a federal grand jury. In a blistering attack on Ray's predecessor, Kenneth Starr, Clinton accused the independent counsel of persecuting innocent people, indicting them because they wouldn't lie and assaulting the Constitution. "I was acquitted," he told Williams. "And ... the charges that the House sent to the Senate were false. So I did a bad thing. I made...

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) A former tough-on-drugs district attorney was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison on drug-related charges. ``I recognize that I used very poor judgment in everything I've done. What makes it onerous is that I was a public official,'' said Rick Roach, 55. Roach campaigned hard against drugs in 2000 when he ran for district attorney in charge of five Texas Panhandle counties. He was re-elected in 2004 and was 11 days into his second four-year term when he was arrested at the courthouse for carrying two guns in his briefcase. Roach admitted he was addicted...

LOS ANGELES - A federal prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement Wednesday that Hillary Clinton's former national finance director panicked when costs for a celebrity-studded 2000 Hollywood fundraising gala mounted and lied to the government to conceal it. Peter Zeidenberg, of the Justice Department's public integrity division, told jurors that David F. Rosen deliberately caused campaign finance reports to be filed with the Federal Election Commission that claimed "in-kind" contributions of $400,000 for the Hollywood gala, when he knew that contributions exceeded $1.1 million. The event, held in August 2000 at a 112-acre Brentwood estate, drew celebrities such as...

Police Search for Pennsylvania Prosecutor Missing Since FridayBy Mark Scolforo Associated Press Writer Published: Apr 16, 2005 BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) - With helicopters and road patrols, police searched across central Pennsylvania on Saturday for a prosecutor who was reported missing after he failed to return home from a drive the day before. Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, 59, had taken Friday off from work and said during a cell phone call at about 11:30 a.m. that he was heading toward Lewisburg on Route 192 in Union County, police said. He did not return home that night and has not...

On March 18th, a shocking crime took place in Berkeley, California, at a spot famous for sweeping Bay views, distinguished architecture, and the genteel atmosphere that wealthy “progressives” create for themselves. An elderly woman, walking home with her husband from an extension class at the University of California, was grabbed from behind by a young woman who had just walked past her on the sidewalk. In a flash, her throat was slit to the bone. As she spurted blood, the suspect drove off with her companion, another young woman, in a light blue BMW M3 convertible, a car which carries...

SALEM, Ore. - A county prosecutor has offered to open his own home to house newly released sex offenders until they can land jobs and places to live. Polk County District Attorney John Fisher asked officials for permission to let up to 15 sex offenders a year stay with him for no longer than 60 days each. "It is my hope, if I did this first, we might find others would who would be willing to do it," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "I wasn't able to see any other viable alternatives." Finding housing for newly...

Key West Prosecutor Faces Streaking Charge 18 minutes ago Strange News - AP KEY WEST, Fla. - A drunk Monroe County prosecutor thought it would be funny to run naked across a parking lot and hop into a friend's car, authorities said. But the joke was on him when he jumped into the wrong car and was arrested. Albert Tasker, who works for the Monroe County State Attorney's Office, told authorities he had been drinking with friends and thought it would be funny to shed his clothes and run to a friend's car in the parking lot of a Key...

The coming economic crisis. Unemployment. Health care for the poor. The almost 1,500 dead soldiers. The almost 100,000 dead Iraqis. Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher. The Christian Conservative takeover of our nation. The missing 9 billion. The missing weapons of mass destruction. The impending invasion of Iran, and Syria. The total failure to protect us on 9-11.

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...

Strange News - AP DA Arrested in Texas Court on Drug Charge 1 hour, 1 minute ago Strange News - AP PAMPA, Texas - The district attorney for five Panhandle counties was arrested while in a courtroom and charged with possession of methamphetamine. Rick Roach was charged with a federal misdemeanor for knowingly and intentionally possessing the drug, said Kathy Colvin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. "The investigation is ongoing," she told The Pampa News. "We have 30 days to present evidence to a grand jury." She said she could not comment further. FBI (news - web sites)...