Tennessee

Bank-Robbing Attorney Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $63K From Clients

The law, it seems, wasn’t working out financially for Buffalo, N.Y., attorney Michael W. Rickard II. Earlier this year Rickard, 42, pleaded guilty to holding up two banks in Nashville, Tenn. Yesterday, in the New York State Supreme Court 8th Judicial District, he pleaded guilty to embezzling almost $63,000 from…

Nov 24, 2010 4:16 PM CST

Sanctuary Founder Sues for Her Old Job and Elephant Visitation Rights

The founder of an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee is seeking visitation rights with an elephant she once taught to roller skate. Carol Buckley was only a young student when she bought Tarra the elephant, then a calf, from a tire shop in California, the New York Times reports. Tarra performed…

Oct 28, 2010 1:07 PM CDT

U.S. Attorney Defends Islam in Lawsuit Challenging Tennessee Mosque Permit

The U.S. Attorney in Nashville has filed a brief defending Islam as a religion in a dispute over a Tennessee mosque. U.S. Attorney Jerry Martin said in a press conference on Monday that he would not sit by while mosque opponents contend Islam is a political system rather than a…

Oct 19, 2010 11:27 AM CDT

City Attorney Exonerated in Criminal Probe re $15K in Work Monthly Sent to His Own Law Firm

The top lawyer in Chattanooga, Tenn., has been exonerated in a criminal probe over his reported practice of contracting out some $15,000 in legal and secretarial work to his own law firm. Although there were technical violations of state law, said District Attorney General Russell Johnson, of Kingston, Tenn., in…

Oct 1, 2010 2:59 PM CDT

Court Reinstates Suit by Lawyer Who Says She Caught Inmate’s Eye Infection

A court-appointed lawyer who says she caught her client’s serious eye infection will be allowed to pursue her lawsuit against the prison warden who released the inmate for trial. A Tennessee appeals court reinstated the suit by lawyer Lanis Karnes in a unanimous decision last Thursday, according to Jacksonsun.com. Karnes…

Sep 29, 2010 3:17 PM CDT

Report: Famed Civil Rights Photographer Was Also an FBI Informant

As a trusted ally of the civil rights movement, freelance Memphis, Tenn., photographer Ernest Withers marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and sat in on some sensitive strategy meetings. Immediately after King was assassinated in 1968, Withers took historic photos of his dispirited aides. He had photographed King himself…

Sep 14, 2010 11:10 PM CDT

After 1-Year Wait, Judge Jane Stranch Is Confirmed by Senate for 6th Circuit Seat

After a record-breaking wait of more than one year, a Nashville, Tenn., attorney was confirmed by the U.S. Senate today for a seat on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate voted 71 to 21 in favor of Jane Branstetter Stranch, who has waited longer than any…

Sep 13, 2010 10:52 PM CDT

Law Firm’s Innovative Recruiting Idea: Shift Summer Program to 3L Fall, Offer Remote Options

Amidst all the talk of a paradigm shift in law practice, law school recruiting has stayed much the same. But a 190-attorney Nashville-based law firm has launched a bold new approach that is capturing national attention. Instead of continuing with its traditional summer program, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis is…

Sep 9, 2010 12:20 AM CDT

Prosecutor Says Note About ‘Light Male’ Shooter Wasn’t a Dying Declaration

A Tennessee prosecutor doesn’t want jurors to see a cab driver’s note before his death that identified his shooter as a “light male.” Knoxville County prosecutor Jason Hunnicutt argues the note shouldn’t be admissible as a dying declaration because cabbie John Cooper was on the upswing when he wrote the…

Aug 4, 2010 3:29 PM CDT

Newspaper: Judge’s 3-Month Suspension Is a Paid Vacation

A three-month suspension meted out by an ethics panel to a Tennessee judge isn’t exactly a draconian punishment. Since Cocke County General Sessions Judge John Bell will still draw his pay, the sanction is “essentially a three-month paid vacation,” writes the Knoxville News Sentinel in an editorial. Meanwhile, taxpayers will…

Aug 3, 2010 6:17 PM CDT

City Lawyer Under Fire for Sending $15K/Month in Legal Support Work to Own Firm

The city attorney for Chattanooga, Tenn., is under fire, after a state auditor’s report criticized him for contracting out some $15,000 per month in secretarial and legal support work from his own private law firm. But city attorney Mike McMahan—backed by the Chattanooga mayor—said he had done nothing wrong and…

Jul 12, 2010 4:50 PM CDT

Scorched Law Firm Offers $1,500 Reward, Urges Public to ‘Burn an Arsonist’

A law firm is offering a reward of as much as $1,500 and urging the public to “Burn an Arsonist” in banners displayed outside its two-story building in the aftermath of a suspicious fire at its Kingsport, Tenn., offices. The fire early Sunday morning destroyed 25 percent of the West…

Jul 7, 2010 11:44 PM CDT

Taped TV Crime Show Confession Isn’t Admissible in Capital Murder Trial

Videotape of a suspect’s confession that was broadcast on A&E’s true-crime program The First 48 can’t be shown to the jury in his capital murder trial, a Tennessee judge has ruled. Criminal Court Judge James Beasley Jr. said he is concerned that taped material that may have been favorable to…

Jul 7, 2010 5:39 PM CDT

Appeals Court Nixes ‘Paramour’ Ban on Longtime Same-Sex Partner in Parenting Plan

Banning the longtime lesbian partner of a child’s mother from living in her home while her 15-year-old daughter is there is unnecessary and may not be in the best interest of the child, a Tennessee appeals court ruled yesterday. Nixing, for the second time, the “paramour” provision imposed by a…

Jun 30, 2010 10:07 PM CDT

Tennessee’s Allen Kopet Acquires W.Va. Firm, Grows ‘One State at a Time’

The sign on the office of Charleston, W.Va., law firm Francis, Nelson & Brison will be changing soon. The seven-lawyer law firm has been acquired by Allen, Kopet & Associates, a law firm based in Chattanooga, Tenn., the Charleston Daily Mail reports. The acquisition is consistent with Allen Kopet’s website…

Jun 23, 2010 3:42 PM CDT