Ex-President Judge of Luzerne County Found Guilty on 12 of 39 Counts in Kids-for-Cash Case

A former president judge in Pennsylvania who was accused of pocketing millions in job-related payments and putting juveniles in jail for his own financial benefit has been convicted on 12 of 39 counts in a federal bribery prosecution. The charges on which Mark Ciavarella Jr. was found guilty by a…

Feb 18, 2011 7:42 PM CST

Former Legal Assistant to Attorney-Judge Gets Probation in Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Telling a federal judge she was truly sorry and would never make the same mistake again, a 36-year-old New Jersey legal assistant was sentenced to probation instead of prison for tax fraud yesterday because of her cooperation with authorities in an alleged $8 million mortgage-fraud scheme. Among the alleged co-conspirators…

Feb 11, 2011 10:51 PM CST

Prosecutor: Judge’s ‘Cash Cow’ Job Milked Money Envelopes From Attorney Owner of Juvenile Facility

At first, then-Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. and a senior colleague in Luzerne County, Pa., allegedly laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks they received for sending juveniles to jail through shell companies and by disguising some of the cash as rental payments on Florida condominium owned by their wives,…

Feb 8, 2011 9:03 PM CST

Opening Statements Loom in ‘Kids-for-Cash’ Trial of Former Luzerne, Pa., President Judge

Even though she is 23 and married, Daniella Ormsby cried when she recalled the nine months she spent in a juvenile detention facility in Pennsylvania as punishment for missing a court hearing. While she has completed her general equivalency degree and is living with her husband and their two children…

Feb 8, 2011 12:20 AM CST

US Citizen ‘Jihad Jane’ Pleads Guilty in Alleged Plot to Kill Swede Over Cartoon of Prophet Muhammad

An American woman who has called herself Jihad Jane has now pleaded guilty in federal court in Philadelphia concerning her role in an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist. In a bizarre scenario that largely took place on the Internet, prosecutors say Colleen LaRose, 47, conspired with jihadist fighters,…

Feb 2, 2011 10:58 AM CST

Reprimanded re Bailiff Relationship, Ex-Judge Says He’s Sued NJ Supreme Court for Racial Bias

Reprimanded for failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a bailiff in his courtroom, a former part-time New Jersey municipal judge says he has filed a federal lawsuit against the state supreme court. Wilson Campbell, who now serves as chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Virgin Islands Department…

Feb 1, 2011 7:32 PM CST

Convicted in Cyberbullying That Allegedly Tried to Drive Teen Victim to Suicide, Man Gets 45 Days

Saying that defendant Matthew Riskin Bean and others need to understand that cyberbullying is a crime, a federal judge in Philadelphia yesterday sentenced the 20-year-old New Jersey man to a 45-day jail term. Although a defense lawyer expressed concern that the 110-pound defendant could himself be targeted for abuse in…

Jan 19, 2011 10:29 PM CST

Hackers Used ‘3G Account Slurper’ to Steal iPad Info and Promote Security Co., Feds Say

Hackers used a so-called 3G account slurper script to hack into AT&T servers last June and steal passwords and other information for some 120,000 iPad users, federal authorities contend. Andrew Auernheimer, 25, of Fayetteville, Ark., and Daniel Spitler, 26, of San Francisco, have each been charged with one count of…

Jan 19, 2011 12:07 AM CST

Death of Female Partner Puts Cozen Firm in Center of Same-Sex Marriage Comity Case

The death of a female partner of Cozen O’Connor has put the law firm in the center of a dispute over a cutting-edge same-sex marriage issue—whether a marriage that is legal in one jurisdiction should be recognized as valid in another in which the parties would not have a right…

Jan 10, 2011 6:50 PM CST

Children Conceived with Dead Father’s Sperm May Be Entitled to Survivor Benefits, 3rd Circuit Rules

Children conceived by way of in vitro fertilization with their father’s sperm after he had died cannot be denied Social Security survivor benefits simply because the law has failed to keep pace with advances in reproductive technology, a federal appeals court has held. The posthumously conceived twins in this case…

Jan 7, 2011 11:51 PM CST

Ex-Lawyer Gets Time in Tax Evasion Case

Previously prosecuted for tax evasion in 1993, a Pennsylvania attorney has now lost his law license and been sentenced to 12 months in federal prison the second time around. Tim Lucas, 63, had a mild form of bipolar disorder, only recently diagnosed, that sparked the spending sprees that got him…

Jan 6, 2011 9:08 PM CST

Corporate Rights Are Again at Issue as AT&T Wants to Keep Info a Secret

Jan 1, 2011 8:40 AM CST

Lawyer Suspended for Giving ‘Certain Items of Value’ to Judge

A Pennsylvania lawyer who cooperated with federal authorities in a criminal case against a former state-court judge reportedly won’t face any criminal charges himself. But Harry Cardoni has been temporarily suspended from law practice by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court based on his admission that he provided “certain items of value”…

Dec 29, 2010 6:06 PM CST

Doc Film Helped Chevron Subpoena Plaintiffs’ US Legal Files in $113B Ecuador Enviro Case

A documentary film encouraged by the lead plaintiff’s lawyer in a $113 billion case concerning alleged damage to a South American rain forest apparently didn’t achieve the result attorney Steve Donziger anticipated. Lawyers for Chevron Corp. used the documentary, Crude, to persuade a federal judge in New York both to…

Dec 23, 2010 9:09 PM CST

Ex-Client Sues Winston and Ex-Partner, Says His $1M Covered Uma Thurman Loss in Starr Theft

Following news last week that a former partner of Winston & Strawn had been both criminally charged and sued by the feds over his alleged role in a $20 million theft from a New York money manager’s investors comes news today that one of those investors has sued both the…

Dec 21, 2010 1:01 AM CST