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CAMDEN, N.J. – Five men who planned an attack on a New Jersey military base were inspired by al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, a prosecutor said Monday during opening statements in their terrorism trial. The government has presented the case as one of the most frightening examples of homegrown terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks. Authorities said that in 2006 and 2007, the men turned paintball games into terrorist training sessions and met to discuss a plot to sneak onto the Army's Fort Dix base and kill soldiers. No attack was carried out. "Their motive was to defend Islam. Their...

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...