Criminal Justice

Gitmo Detainees Reject Defense Counsel

Some detainees among the alleged enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay flatly refuse legal counsel. Others at the U.S. military prison merely refuse to open legal mail. Their rebuffs of those who seek to help them escape their indefinite detention apparently are motivated by distrust of Americans and a sense that…

May 7, 2007 11:01 AM CDT

Party Over for Paris, Hotel Heiress Headed to Jail

A Los Angeles judge put the brakes on hotel heiress Paris Hilton’s notorious party lifestyle today, when he sentenced her to a 45-day jail term for violating her probation in an earlier alcohol-related reckless driving case. Two subsequent traffic stops and missing by several months a deadline to enroll in…

May 5, 2007 2:10 AM CDT

Tough Testimony for Renowned Chicago Lawyer

This hasn’t been a great week for former Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson. Now a well-known lawyer at a prominent Chicago law firm, he spent several days this week testifying as a witness at the fraud trial of former Hollinger International corporate executives. The company is the parent of the…

May 4, 2007 11:55 PM CDT

Resignation of LA Prosecutor Questioned

Questions are being raised about the departure of U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang of Los Angeles. Wang resigned in October to accept a lucrative job offer from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher about two months before eight of her counterparts were fired. She says she left for personal reasons. At the…

May 4, 2007 5:58 PM CDT

Today in Legal History: Demonstrators Shot by Authorities at Haymarket, Kent State

On this day in 1886, someone among 200 or so workers at a labor rally near Chicago’s Haymarket Square threw a bomb into a group of 176 police officers. Police gunfire followed. When the smoke cleared, one officer lay dead, and six others died later, and 60 more were injured.…

May 4, 2007 5:01 PM CDT

Scammers Combine Stock, Computer Crimes

A fraud that targets computer users at hotels and Internet cafes has netted scammers tens of millions of dollars, according to FBI officials. The scammers use keystroke logging programs on hotel and Internet computers to steal passwords to brokerage accounts, according to Bloomberg News. Money in the accounts is used…

May 4, 2007 4:56 PM CDT

Judge’s Comment Helps Milberg Weiss Defense

A dismissal motion filed last week by a former partner with Milberg Weiss & Bershad picks up on concerns raised by a trial judge. Steven Schulman argues for dismissal of charges that he paid kickbacks to class-action clients because no one involved in the suits suffered any harm. Schulman has…

May 4, 2007 4:26 PM CDT

Alleged Madam’s Lawyer a ‘Vexatious Litigant’

A Washington Post reporter who visited the offices of the lawyer representing the alleged D.C. madam expected plush surroundings. Instead he found that Montgomery Blair Sibley has K Street offices in “what amounts to a broom closet.” It’s next to a building switchboard operator wearing a T-shirt that reads “Where’s…

May 4, 2007 4:01 PM CDT

Banker Accused of Insider Trading

A junior investment banker has been charged with leaking inside information about investment deals before they were announced. Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem, who works at Credit Suisse in Manhattan, was arrested yesterday, the New York Times reports. Naseem is accused of telling a Pakistani investment banker about the pending deals,…

May 4, 2007 1:52 PM CDT

House Passes Hate Crimes Bill

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would expand the definition of hate crimes to cover wrongdoing motivated by a victim’s “gender, sexual orientation, gender identity” or disability. President Bush has threatened a veto if the measure passes the Senate, calling expansion of the law “unnecessary and constitutionally…

May 4, 2007 1:11 PM CDT

Trial: Mafia Competed to Murder Mob Robbers

No one was too surprised when a Bonnie and Clyde team of robbers who targeted Mafia-run social clubs was murdered on Dec. 24, 1992. But an ongoing trial is providing new details about their murders 15 years ago near a Queens, N.Y., intersection, where each reportedly was shot three times…

May 3, 2007 11:49 PM CDT

Comey Testifies 7 of 8 Fired U.S. Attorneys Great

In testimony today before a U.S. House judiciary committee investigating the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, a former top Justice Department attorney praised all but one of them. Jim Comey, who was number two in the department when he served as deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2005, said only…

May 3, 2007 9:52 PM CDT

China Arrests Alleged Culprit in Pet Food Case

The general manager of a Chinese company whose contaminated wheat gluten allegedly ended up sickening thousands of pets in the U.S. and South Africa has been arrested on undisclosed charges. Mao Lijun denied in an interview several weeks ago that his company’s product ended up in the pet food that…

May 3, 2007 8:22 PM CDT

No Docs, But Big-Name Lawyer OKs $200 Million

A renowned Chicago lawyer and former Illinois governor testified yesterday that he approved $200 million in payments as a corporate director and audit committee chair without documentary support. In his second day of cross-examination yesterday in the trial of press baron Conrad Black and other executives accused of participating in…

May 3, 2007 7:42 PM CDT

Bush Threatens Veto of Hate Crimes Bill

President Bush is threatening to veto a bill that expands hate crimes legislation to protect against crimes motivated by gender or sexual orientation.

May 3, 2007 7:21 PM CDT