Pennsylvania

Temple Law Student Is Acquitted in Videotaped Shooting of Lacrosse Star

Philadelphia jurors have acquitted a former Temple third-year law student who shot a onetime Villanova lacrosse star six times in a January 2010 confrontation that was caught on videotape. Jurors evidently accepted Gerald Ung’s assertion of self-defense, returning a verdict in less than five hours, according to Above the Law,…

Feb 16, 2011 12:35 PM CST

Pa. Judge Taken Off All Criminal Cases After Public Defender Wins Temp Protective Order Against Him

An assistant public defender has been granted a temporary protective order against a Pennsylvania judge with whom she works at the York County Judicial Center. Janan Tallo, 30, alleged in a protection from abuse petition (PDF) that York County Judge Thomas Kelley VI, who is 47, broke her right elbow…

Feb 15, 2011 5:39 PM CST

Did Partner Dispute at Beasley Firm Begin Before or After Barroom Brawl?

A barroom brawl between two partners of the Beasley Firm—witnessed by two other partners, including the firm’s managing partner—was the impetus for a recent announcement that one of the partners involved in the altercation and one of the witnesses are leaving the firm, reports the Legal Intelligencer in an article…

Feb 14, 2011 9:24 PM CST

Pa. Supreme Court Upholds Its Own Suspension of Allegedly ‘Nasty, Rude, Erratic, Strange’ Judge

Rejecting a Pennsylvania judge’s argument that the state’s highest court lacked the power to suspend her with pay prior to a hearing on the merits of its case against her, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday denied a request to return Allentown District Judge Maryesther Merlo to the bench, the Morning…

Feb 11, 2011 7:24 PM CST

Judge Overrules Parents, Gives Doctors OK to Perform Surgery on Injured Wrestler, 16

Injured during a wrestling practice last month, a 16-year-old boy in Pennsylvania needs surgery on his spine that his parents have nixed, a state-court jurist has decided. So Delaware County judge Mary Alice Brennan faxed an order today to doctors at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital giving them permission to stabilize…

Feb 10, 2011 10:38 PM CST

Prosecutor: Judge’s ‘Cash Cow’ Job Milked Money Envelopes From Attorney Owner of Juvenile Facility

At first, then-Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. and a senior colleague in Luzerne County, Pa., allegedly laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks they received for sending juveniles to jail through shell companies and by disguising some of the cash as rental payments on Florida condominium owned by their wives,…

Feb 8, 2011 9:03 PM CST

Opening Statements Loom in ‘Kids-for-Cash’ Trial of Former Luzerne, Pa., President Judge

Even though she is 23 and married, Daniella Ormsby cried when she recalled the nine months she spent in a juvenile detention facility in Pennsylvania as punishment for missing a court hearing. While she has completed her general equivalency degree and is living with her husband and their two children…

Feb 8, 2011 12:20 AM CST

US Citizen ‘Jihad Jane’ Pleads Guilty in Alleged Plot to Kill Swede Over Cartoon of Prophet Muhammad

An American woman who has called herself Jihad Jane has now pleaded guilty in federal court in Philadelphia concerning her role in an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist. In a bizarre scenario that largely took place on the Internet, prosecutors say Colleen LaRose, 47, conspired with jihadist fighters,…

Feb 2, 2011 10:58 AM CST

Lawyer Gets Probation for Punching Opposing Counsel

A Philadelphia-area lawyer who punched his opposing counsel in a courthouse stairwell will serve six months of probation and 75 hours of community service for the assault. Michael Rausch, a 46-year-old Cherry Hill, N.J., lawyer, was accused of throwing three punches at a Scranton lawyer who reportedly called him stupid…

Jan 28, 2011 3:23 PM CST

Woman Whose Fountain Fall Is a YouTube Hit Considers Suing over Video Release

A woman whose fall into a mall fountain has become a YouTube sensation is considering a suit over the posting of the security video. Cathy Cruz Marrero appeared with her lawyer on Good Morning America and hinted of a lawsuit, ABC News reports. Her lawyer, James Polyak, said he intends…

Jan 21, 2011 2:59 PM CST

Judge Dismisses Case Against Inmate Accused of Threatening Prosecutors

A Pennsylvania state court judge has dismissed criminal charges against an inmate accused of harassing and threatening the prosecutors who put him behind bars on a parole violation concerning an earlier stalking conviction. Although Judge William Furber Jr. believed that David Thomas Petko, 48, did in fact make the comments…

Jan 20, 2011 6:31 PM CST

Convicted in Cyberbullying That Allegedly Tried to Drive Teen Victim to Suicide, Man Gets 45 Days

Saying that defendant Matthew Riskin Bean and others need to understand that cyberbullying is a crime, a federal judge in Philadelphia yesterday sentenced the 20-year-old New Jersey man to a 45-day jail term. Although a defense lawyer expressed concern that the 110-pound defendant could himself be targeted for abuse in…

Jan 19, 2011 10:29 PM CST

Abortion Doc Charged with 8 Murders; 9 Clinic Workers in Custody, 4 Also Face Murder Charges

A physician whose medical license was suspended after a raid last year on his Philadelphia abortion clinic has been charged with 8 counts of murder. Nine of the untrained workers at Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s now-shuttered clinic are also in custody, and prosecutors say four clinic employees face murder charges, too,…

Jan 19, 2011 8:49 PM CST

Pa. Inmate in Wired Cell Accused of Offering Cash and Harley for Slaying of Judge, 2 Others

Prosecutors from two Pennsylvania counties today announced that a prison inmate has been charged with plotting to kill a state-court judge. Lance Patrick Greenawalt, 44, allegedly offered his Camp Hill cellmate cash and a Harley Davidson motorcycle to murder a judge who had overseen a previous case in which Greenawalt…

Jan 14, 2011 9:23 PM CST

Juror on Hot Seat, Accused of Web-Surfing; Claimed Research May Cause Capital Murder Case Mistrial

A mistrial may have to be declared in a Pennsylvania capital murder case over a juror’s reported Web-surfing. The Luzerne County panel’s foreman blew the whistle on fellow juror Gretchen Black today, when she returned to court this morning after the first day of deliberations allegedly armed with Internet information…

Jan 14, 2011 7:22 PM CST