Prosecutors

Ex-prosecutor sues, says she was treated differently and paid less than men in US Attorney’s office

A former federal prosecutor in Spokane, Washington, has brought an employment discrimination suit against Attorney General Loretta Lynch in her position as the head of the Department of Justice. Filed Wednesday in federal court in the Eastern District of Washington, the complaint (PDF) by Katherine J. “Jill” Bolton accuses U.S.…

Oct 22, 2015 4:40 PM CDT

Pennsylvania AG remains at work despite suspended law license

Pennsylvania’s attorney general came to work Thursday, even though she no longer has an active law license. The suspension of her license took effect at midnight, and was imposed a month ago by the state supreme court. But embattled AG Kathleen Kane apparently has no plan to step down, telling…

Oct 22, 2015 1:35 PM CDT

Federal judge says neuroscience is not ready for the courtroom—yet

Neuroscience has been creeping into the nation’s courtrooms with greater frequency. Yet the science, while much of it promising, is not quite ready for use as evidence in most legal cases, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff told a group of neuroscientists gathered in Chicago. Rakoff, a judge for the…

Oct 20, 2015 3:55 PM CDT

TV judge had ‘little regard for truth and accuracy’ in Robert Durst book, collaborator’s suit says

Just weeks before the scheduled publication of a true-crime book about a member of a wealthy New York family written by a well-known former prosecutor, a onetime collaborator has filed suit against the author. Plaintiff Lisa DePaulo contends that author Jeanine Pirro showed “little regard for truth and accuracy” and…

Oct 19, 2015 4:05 PM CDT

Seeking to regain his law license, former Kansas AG files federal civil rights suit

Back when former Kansas attorney general Phill Kline was defending a legal ethics case over his handling of abortion-related matters, he sought and got the recusal of several justices on the state’s top court. But in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Sunday, the former AG is now challenging the…

Oct 19, 2015 2:55 PM CDT

Prolific snitch reads cellmates’ legal papers while they sleep, defense attorney says

A prolific informant who could potentially testify in nearly two dozen Florida criminal cases says he gets fellow inmates to confess by offering his services as a jailhouse lawyer. But in fact Frederick Cobia, who claims to have inside knowledge in 23 cases, learns details by reading Palm Beach County…

Oct 16, 2015 3:15 PM CDT

Cooley law grad who wanted to be a lawyer since 14 is a prosecutor at 20

A Cooley law grad who wanted to be a lawyer since she was 14 years old managed to achieve her goal only six years later. Robyn Crawford is only 20 years old and an assistant state attorney in Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit, the Daily Business Review (sub. req.) reports. Crawford…

Oct 16, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Lawyer charged in incident at judge’s home was a crime victim minutes earlier, his counsel says

An Alabama attorney who is now facing a felony case over an incident last month outside a Louisiana judge’s home was himself a crime victim only a short time earlier, his defense lawyer says. Joshua Stemle, who was captured on surveillance camera footage scuffling in the home’s courtyard with the…

Oct 15, 2015 3:25 PM CDT

Fired prosecutor sues in effort to get Dallas DA removed from office

A fired Texas prosecutor has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state against her former boss, seeking to remove Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk from office. Filed Tuesday, the Dallas County District Court petition by former administrative chief Cindy Stormer cites claimed incompetence by Hawk to perform the…

Oct 14, 2015 2:20 PM CDT

Dallas County DA talks about her two-month absence and untreated depression

Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk says she refuses to be ashamed about her battle with major depressive disorder. Hawk is back on the job after a two-month stay at a psychiatric hospital in Houston where she received treatment for depression, anxiety and attention deficit disorder. She spoke with the…

Oct 8, 2015 8:07 AM CDT

ACLU lawsuit says county is jailing people who can’t afford to pay fines

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a county in Washington state, asserting that it is forcing people who can’t afford to pay their court fines to either go to jail or labor on work crews. The lawsuit against Benton County is part of the ACLU’s national campaign to combat…

Oct 7, 2015 2:30 PM CDT

Inmate’s claim that Pennsylvania’s top justice should have recused himself gets SCOTUS review

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether a death-row inmate’s constitutional rights were violated when Pennsylvania’s then-chief justice refused to recuse himself, despite approving the inmate’s capital prosecution as district attorney. The court granted cert on Thursday in the case of Terrance Williams, who says Chief Justice Ronald…

Oct 2, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Meet the California public defender who is ‘shaking the Orange County legal system to its bedrock’

A longtime public defender in California known for his lengthy “eye bleeder” motions relied on his dogged determination to unearth what he says is a secret, orchestrated effort by police to place jailhouse informants near high-value defendants in Orange County. The lawyer, Scott Sanders, “is shaking the Orange County legal…

Sep 30, 2015 12:16 PM CDT

Ex-prosecutor accused of ‘disruptive conduct’ at adult store agrees to suspension

A former prosecutor accused of yelling at employees of an adult store and screaming obscenities at police has agreed to a 30-day suspension. The Illinois Supreme Court accepted the consent suspension on Sept. 21 for one-time Cook County prosecutor, Sarah Naughton. The Legal Profession Blog has the news. The incident…

Sep 24, 2015 8:13 AM CDT

Kid Rock shows for jury duty, promises to give police ‘the benefit of the doubt’

Called for jury duty in Michigan, Kid Rock arrived in the Oakland County Court house in Pontiac on Thursday and answered questions about his fitness to serve in a murder trial. Noting his many law enforcement friends, the singer, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, promised to give police…

Sep 18, 2015 7:00 AM CDT