Free Republic

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...