Court Security

Double-murder conviction is followed by brother’s arrest after courthouse elevator incident

A Pennsylvania jury conviction Wednesday night in a high-profile double-murder case was quickly followed by the arrest of the defendant’s brother after a courthouse elevator incident. As trial attendees exited the Luzerne County courtroom where 41-year-old Hugo Selenski was convicted of first-degree capital murder, his brother Ronald Thomas Selenski, 34,…

Feb 12, 2015 3:25 PM CST

Minister arrested after trying to perform same-sex marriage at probate judge’s office

An Alabama probate judge called police Tuesday after a minister tried to marry a same-sex couple at his office and refused his request to leave. Anne Susan Diprizio, 44, an ordained minister, later posted $1,000 bond in her disorderly conduct case. Diprizio told the Montgomery Advertiser she intends to return…

Feb 11, 2015 10:00 AM CST

Court interpreter at Gitmo trial for accused 9/11 slayers worked at CIA ‘black site,’ defendants say

The first hearing since August in a military case against five men accused of playing a role in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks came to a sudden halt Monday. At least two of the defendants said they recognized the courtroom interpreter at at the U.S. Navy base tribunal at…

Feb 9, 2015 4:20 PM CST

Convicted killer Drew Peterson charged with trying put a hit on state’s attorney

Already convicted in a high-profile murder case concerning the 2004 slaying of his third wife and named as a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, a retired suburban Chicago police sergeant is now facing another significant prosecution. Drew Peterson, 61, was charged Monday with trying to put…

Feb 9, 2015 1:45 PM CST

Assistant public defender handcuffed in court hallway files complaint against police officers

A veteran assistant San Francisco public defender has filed a citizen complaint against the six city police officers involved in her arrest last month in a courthouse hallway. Although the criminal case was dropped and the police chief apologized, Jami Tillotson said she wasn’t completely satisfied with this resolution, reports…

Feb 6, 2015 4:05 PM CST

Case dropped against PD handcuffed in court hall on viral video; ACLU calls for policy review

A resisting case will not be pursued against a veteran assistant San Francisco public defender who was handcuffed in a court hallway last month and taken away after she objected to a plainclothes police plan to photograph her client there. The incident was filmed by fellow attorneys in a now-viral…

Feb 5, 2015 2:30 PM CST

Cellphone spat at federal courthouse leads to 2-year prison term

A courthouse cellphone spat prior to a bankruptcy meeting led to a federal prison sentence of more than two years last week for a Michigan man who was growing marijuana at his Flint home. The government’s sentencing memorandum says Lawrence McManaman argued with security officers at the federal courthouse in…

Jan 28, 2015 12:15 PM CST

Is a nude violinist akin to a naked bicyclist? Federal civil rights suit says yes, seeks $1M

Arrested last year for playing the violin outside a federal courthouse in downtown Portland, Oregon, while naked, a suburban resident has now filed a civil rights lawsuit based, in part, on a claimed violation of his First Amendment rights. Matthew Thomas Mglej, 25, seeks $1.1 million in damages in the…

Jan 26, 2015 11:50 AM CST

Federal magistrate joins Twitter, tweets about sports and fatherhood

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal has joined Twitter, mostly because he wants more sports information. “It was readily apparent I was missing out on fun and interesting stuff by not being on Twitter,” Grewal told the San Jose Mercury News. Grewal is a magistrate judge in San Jose, but he…

Jan 26, 2015 6:54 AM CST

Woman stole lawyer’s identity and impersonated her in court, officials say

Attorney Karla Stirling doesn’t handle criminal defense matters, or litigate much. And, although she is licensed in Utah, she primarily practices in California. So she was stunned to get a call from a court in Utah concerning a criminal case there she was told she had recently worked on, the…

Jan 13, 2015 5:00 PM CST

3 charged, held on $1M bond, in attack on murder-hearing attendee as he exited courthouse

Three men on parole are facing new charges and being held in lieu of $1 million bond after allegedly beating another man outside a suburban Chicago courthouse on Monday. The injured man had just exited the Will County Courthouse after attending a pretrial hearing in the murder case against 16-year-old…

Jan 13, 2015 10:30 AM CST

Pretrial hearing in teen’s murder case sparks altercation for second time this month

For the second time this month, a pretrial hearing in a suburban Chicago murder case sparked chaos. Police said a 22-year-old attendee at a Monday hearing for defendant Christopher Stamps, 16, was jumped on the steps of the Will County Courthouse in Joliet and hospitalized, the Herald-News reports. Three men…

Jan 12, 2015 4:40 PM CST

Security measures at Boston Marathon bombing trial extend outside courthouse

As jury selection began this week in what is considered by many the highest-profile U.S. terrorism trial since Timothy McVeigh’s over the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, security was high. In addition to a fleet of U.S. Homeland Security vehicles parked outside Boston’s federal courthouse and driving around it and the…

Jan 12, 2015 6:15 AM CST

Ex-prosecutor accused of selling confidential info and his influence, due to drug addiction

Suffering from “severe financial strain” as a result of an addiction to oxycodone pills, a Massachusetts prosecutor traded confidential information from his office for the drug and took $1,500 from a woman who was trying to get her son’s commercial driving privileges restored, authorities say. Arraigned Friday in Middlesex Superior…

Jan 9, 2015 10:40 AM CST

Flooded courtrooms closed; deluge blamed on defendant accused of breaking sprinkler in holding cell

Seven courtrooms were shut down at a South Florida courthouse after a defendant in a fourth-floor holding cell broke a sprinkler and flooded the floor below. The accused inmate, Acacio Carreira, 32, was originally facing a burglary and theft case but is now expected to be charged as well with…

Jan 7, 2015 1:15 PM CST