5th Circuit Court

Did law enforcement comment online about grand jury matter? Judge orders newspaper to reveal ID info

Did federal law enforcement officials make online comments related to a fraud case against the former chief of a New Orleans city-funded program? Stacey Jackson and the lawyer representing her in an effort to show grand jury proceedings were tainted say they suspect that did happen. And this week a…

Mar 28, 2014 3:50 PM CDT

5th Circuit upholds Texas law requiring hospital admission privileges for abortion doctors

A federal appeals court has upheld a provision in a Texas law that requires abortion doctors to have admission privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their abortion clinic. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found no undue burden, the Austin American-Statesman, CNN, the Dallas Morning…

Mar 28, 2014 12:46 PM CDT

Did procedural misstep bar defendant from raising lawyer’s capital concession? SCOTUS to decide

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a death-row inmate whose trial counsel said during a summation that he couldn’t quarrel with the jury’s decision to find his client eligible for a death sentence. The court limited review to a procedural issue: whether the claim was…

Mar 24, 2014 3:15 PM CDT

Tearful runaway real estate lawyer gets 5 years in $5.9M client theft

A Florida real estate lawyer who made international headlines when he suddenly disappeared last year, leading to the revelation of a massive client theft, faced the consequences Wednesday. Timothy McCabe, 56, was sentenced to five years in prison by a federal judge in West Palm Beach and ordered to pay…

Mar 19, 2014 9:40 PM CDT

Tax protester gets 20-year max in attempted murder-for-hire plot against federal judge

Convicted last year of attempting to solicit the murder-for-hire of a federal judge in Fort Worth, a Texas man has been sentenced to a 20-year prison term, the maximum for the offense. Phillip Monroe Ballard, 72, was found guilty by a jury in December of offering $100,000 to an undercover…

Mar 19, 2014 3:50 PM CDT

5th Circuit: Law firm sued for libel over website seeking clients isn’t protected by SLAPP statute

Agreeing with a trial court that statements made by a Texas law firm on a website seeking legal clients are commercial speech, a federal appeals court has ruled that the firm and two partners must defend a defamation claim made by a national dental firm that was an intended litigation…

Mar 18, 2014 5:55 PM CDT

Attorney pleads guilty, says he bribed judge for favorable case rulings

A Texas lawyer pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in San Antonio, saying that he had paid a state district court judge less than $10,000 for favorable rulings in cases. Alberto “Al” Acevedo Jr., 60, could get a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he…

Mar 17, 2014 4:55 PM CDT

$50K-a-year bakery worker and wife lived lavishly while laundering $16.6M, feds say

The former controller of a Texas bakery known for its high-end fruitcakes lived a lavish lifestyle, along with his wife, as the two laundered $16.6 million he stole from his employer, the feds say. Both Sandy Jenkins, 65, and his wife, Kay Jenkins, 63, were charged Wednesday in a superseding…

Mar 14, 2014 3:25 PM CDT

3 plead guilty in attempt to pay $1.2M bribe to federal judge in cartel money-laundering case

Three Mexican citizens have pleaded guilty in a failed attempt to pay a $1.2 million bribe to a federal judge hearing a drug cartel money-laundering case in Austin, Texas. Court documents say Judge Sam Sparks didn’t know about the attempted bribe before he sentenced Francisco Colorado Cessa in September, because…

Mar 12, 2014 6:19 PM CDT

Actor and Hollywood producer, both lawyers, indicted over tax credits for film house rehab

A Hollywood producer and entertainment lawyer and a Tulane University Law School graduate who is also an actor and producer have been federally indicted, accused of submitting fraudulent documentation to obtain Louisiana tax credits under a program that is intended to encourage the film industry in the state. Peter M.…

Mar 11, 2014 3:50 PM CDT

5th Circuit denies Miss. inmate’s habeas corpus petition citing controversial forensic pathologist

A federal appeals court has denied a Mississippi prisoner’s petition for a successive writ of habeas corpus. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a Jan. 31 ruling (PDF), said inmate Tavares Flaggs hadn’t shown that the factual predicate of his proposed claims could not have been…

Mar 4, 2014 10:45 PM CST

Closing attorney gets 7 months, must repay $2.1M in loan-fraud case

A Texas lawyer got seven months in federal prison and was ordered to repay $2.1 million after pleading guilty last year to misprision of a felony in a real estate loan-fraud case. Jerry Goh, 51, was sentenced Monday in Dallas in the Northern District of Texas case. He has until…

Feb 26, 2014 9:35 PM CST

Federal judge in Texas strikes state’s ban on same-sex marriage

A federal judge in Texas has struck down the state’s constitutional and statutory ban on same-sex marriage, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the ban violates their right to equal protection and due process under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. constitution. “Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose,…

Feb 26, 2014 9:20 PM CST

FBI alerts judges and prosecutors that their courthouse calls and texts were monitored

Judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers and others in Texas who conduct business at the Bexar County Courthouse got letters from the FBI recently telling them that their phone calls and text conversations had been monitored. At the center of the eavesdropping is a lawyer who is cooperating in a judicial corruption…

Feb 24, 2014 10:22 PM CST

Former district attorney gets 13 years in federal corruption case over his work as a prosecutor

Convicted last year on seven counts in a corruption case in which he was accused of running his Texas office as a racketeering enterprise, former Cameron County District Attorney Armando R. Villalobos was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in federal prison. Villalobos was one of a number of lawyers involved…

Feb 11, 2014 10:50 PM CST