D.C. Circuit Court

Fed’l Judge Dismisses Big Drug Case, Calls DOJ Misconduct Issue Moot

Perhaps seeing the handwriting on the wall, the U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge to dismiss a major drug case with prejudice, and the judge has agreed. Friday’s dismissal with prejudice of a conspiracy case against Zhenli Ye Gon is expected to send the defendant to Mexico to…

Aug 31, 2009 10:30 PM CDT

Ex-Judge Who Filed $54M ‘Pants Suit’ Appeals Dismissal of Job-Loss Claim

The now-former Washington, D.C., administrative law judge who made international headlines after he filed a $54 million lawsuit against his dry cleaner over a missing pair of trousers is back in court again. Roy Pearson Jr., who also lost the so-called pants suit case, plans to ask the U.S. Court…

Aug 27, 2009 5:09 PM CDT

Paralegal Guilty in Fake-Libel-Suit Scam That Briefly Won $3M

A credulous paralegal is facing a potential two-and-a-half-year federal prison term after apparently being duped by a convicted child molester into participating in a bizarre alleged civil litigation scheme. Its claimed purpose was to “coerce or fool” the now-adult victim of the molestation into recanting, via a faked defamation suit…

Aug 24, 2009 7:00 PM CDT

Dozens of Judges Are Getting LinkedIn, Blogger Notes

Dozens of judges have posted profiles on the professional networking site LinkedIn, including six federal appeals judges. Blogger Robert Ambrogi found the judges through his own search, and wrote about them on Legal Blog Watch. Among the federal appeals judges with public profiles are Richard Clifton of the 9th Circuit,…

Aug 20, 2009 5:50 PM CDT

Appeals Court OKs Contempt for Veteran Lawyer Over Debt Collection Case

Kenneth Loewinger has written a treatise on landlord-tenant law in Washington, D.C., that is relied on by judges. But the veteran practitioner, who has been a lawyer since 1971, was appropriately held in contempt for filing suit in an attempt to collect unpaid rent when the client landlord’s building was…

Aug 17, 2009 9:57 PM CDT

Dismiss Ye Gon Case Due to DOJ ‘Systemic Failure,’ Defender Agencies Urge Judge

Joining in a call by private defense lawyers representing Zhenli Ye Gon to dismiss the federal drug conspiracy indictment against him with prejudice, two Washington, D.C., public defender agencies say the way the U.S. Department of Justice has handled the high-profile case against the Mexican millionaire merits this sanction. Invited…

Jul 28, 2009 9:27 PM CDT

In Latest Loss for $54M Pants Suit Judge, Fed’l Court Dismisses Termination Claim

It appears that much-publicized litigation brought by an administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., over a dry cleaner’s alleged loss of his suit trousers and the jurist’s subsequent loss of his job may finally be nearing a conclusion. After generating international headlines with a May 2008 lawsuit that sought $54…

Jul 28, 2009 7:57 PM CDT

Ex-Staff Lawyer Discrimination Suit Against Covington Is Revived

A high-profile former staff lawyer at Covington & Burling who accused the law firm of discrimination is back in the ballgame again with a federal lawsuit she filed against the firm earlier this year. Dismissed at the end of May without prejudice for want of prosecution, the suit by attorney,…

Jul 24, 2009 10:57 PM CDT

Fed’l Judge Says CIA Fraud Shielded Agent from Suit, Mulls Possible Lawyer Sanctions

A federal judge is mulling possible sanctions for multiple Central Intelligence Agency lawyers and two other CIA employees including a former director after finding that the agency committed fraud while seeking to protect an agent from a lawsuit. The former director, George Tenet, filed an affidavit in 2000 asking that…

Jul 20, 2009 7:03 PM CDT

For the 2nd Time in Less Than 3 Months, Judge Sullivan Castigates DOJ

For the second time in less than three months, Judge Emmett Sullivan offered blistering comments from the bench yesterday castigating the U.S. Department of Justice concerning its compliance with ethical obligations to turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense. In the latest case, the Washington, D.C., federal district judge questioned…

Jul 1, 2009 7:45 PM CDT

Free Gitmo Detainee, Judge Orders, Says US Position ‘Defies Common Sense’

Finding that a captured videotape of Abd Al Rahim Abdul Rassak shows him being tortured by al-Qaida as a suspected American spy, a federal judge has rejected as ridiculous a U.S. government position that he continues to be a legitimate detainee in a terrorism case. In a 13-page habeas corpus…

Jun 23, 2009 12:26 AM CDT

DOJ Enters Fray Over Geronimo Skull Possibly Held By Yale Secret Society

In a filing on behalf of three high-level government officials—including President Barack Obama—who are named as defendants, the U.S. Department of Justice seeks to dismiss a federal lawsuit by descendants of the Apache warrior chieftan Geronimo that also names Yale University and a longtime secret society as defendants. The plaintiffs…

Jun 22, 2009 11:35 PM CDT

DOJ Seeks to Dismiss High-Profile Meth Case, Citing ‘Evidentiary Concerns’

Updated: Citing “evidentiary concerns,” the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to dismiss without prejudice a drug conspiracy case against a Chinese-born Mexican millionaire, saying that Zhenli Ye Gon should first be tried in Mexico where authorities allegedly seized some $205 million from his Mexico City mansion. The U.S. case…

Jun 22, 2009 7:24 PM CDT

Attorney Robert Wone’s Murder in Law Partner’s Upscale Home Is Still a Mystery

Somehow, attorney Robert Wone was murdered in the upscale Washington, D.C., townhome where he was visiting friends one sweltering summer night in 2006. But exactly how that happened remains a head-scratcher, reports the Washington Post in a two-part series Sunday and yesterday that details at length the prosecution’s theory of…

Jun 2, 2009 11:24 PM CDT

Federal Judge Tells DOJ to Make Gitmo Case Files Public

Siding with the media and lawyers representing detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., today gave the government a July 29 deadline. By that date, the U.S. Department of Justice must either to seek to protect specific information about the cases against…

Jun 2, 2009 12:25 AM CDT