Criminal Justice

Arrest is made in fatal shooting of BigLaw associate at McDonald’s

Police have arrested a suspect in the May 4 killing of a BigLaw associate at a McDonald’s in Houston.

May 13, 2024 10:45 AM CDT

Lawyer charged with illegally transmitting Michigan data after 2020 election

A lawyer who pressed election fraud claims after the 2020 presidential election is facing new criminal charges alleging that she and a township clerk allowed an unauthorized computer examiner to access voter data that included nonpublic information.

May 9, 2024 2:53 PM CDT

Viral video shows former Rikers Island inmate as she learns she passed bar exam on first try

A woman who served six months in prison at Rikers Island in New York as a teenager passed the bar exam on the first try, a moment captured in a viral video posted to TikTok.

May 9, 2024 1:55 PM CDT

No separate hearing required when police seize cars loaned to drivers accused of drug crimes, SCOTUS rules

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against two women who loaned their cars to others arrested for drug crimes while using the vehicles, leading Alabama police to seek civil forfeiture of the cars.

May 9, 2024 10:44 AM CDT

Former McElroy Deutsch CFO pleads guilty to embezzling more than $1.5M from firm

The former chief financial officer of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $1.5 million from the law firm over a six-year period and failing to pay more than $22,000 in state income taxes.

May 9, 2024 9:27 AM CDT

Accused getaway driver, aka ‘Block Da Foo Foo,’ was prejudiced by rap video evidence, Texas court says

A trial judge should not have allowed prosecutors to introduce an accused getaway driver’s rap videos at trial in an effort to show that he was more sophisticated than he claimed to be, the top criminal court in Texas has ruled.

May 9, 2024 9:05 AM CDT

Former top prosecutor in St. Louis ‘remains elusive,’ says state auditor who can’t find her

The former top prosecutor for St. Louis “remains elusive,” and “her whereabouts are currently unknown,” according to a May 6 press release by the Missouri state auditor.

May 7, 2024 2:23 PM CDT

BigLaw associate identified as good Samaritan fatally shot at McDonald’s

An associate at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith was fatally shot at a McDonald’s in Houston on Saturday after trying to calm an angry customer who was dissatisfied with his order, according to Houston police.

May 7, 2024 9:17 AM CDT

Trump again found in contempt for violating gag, threatened with jail

A judge ruled Monday that Donald Trump again violated his gag order in the New York hush money trial, and he warned the former president that he would consider jailing Trump if the violations continue.

May 6, 2024 2:20 PM CDT

Former lawyer will be retried for murder after top Georgia court overturns conviction

Prosecutors are planning to retry a former Atlanta lawyer after his murder conviction was overturned Tuesday by the Georgia Supreme Court.

May 6, 2024 9:26 AM CDT

Lawyer’s new book traces today’s true-crime fascination to salacious 1800s murder trial

The case of Polly Bodine is the subject of Alex Hortis’ new book, The Witch of New York. But a whodunnit is only part of the story that Hortis, the associate university counsel at the University of Maryland Baltimore, sets out to tell. The book’s subtitle shares the rest: “The cursed birth of tabloid justice.”

May 2, 2024 2:16 PM CDT

One thing is already clear at Trump’s NY trial: Nobody liked Michael Cohen

At times during former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial, the testimony has been just as devastating to Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who will be a key prosecution witness later this month.

May 2, 2024 12:00 PM CDT

Federal judge reprimanded for handcuffing teen spectator in scared-straight approach

A federal judge who ordered a defendant’s daughter handcuffed to warn her about the consequences of drug use has been reprimanded by the judicial council of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco.

May 2, 2024 10:58 AM CDT

District attorney ‘humbled by my own stupidity’ after failing to stop for police, calling officer name

A district attorney for a county that includes Rochester, New York, issued a video apology Sunday night after she failed to pull over for a traffic stop and called an officer a name after she drove into her garage about a half-mile away.

May 1, 2024 2:01 PM CDT

Chemerinsky: SCOTUS winds up term with rulings expected on major cases about government power, accountability

The Supreme Court heard the last oral arguments of the term on April 25, and now we wait for the decisions with the expectation of the usual flurry of rulings at the end of June. In thinking about the pending cases, a significant number involve the scope of government power and how to hold the government accountable.

May 1, 2024 12:08 PM CDT