Verdicts & Settlements

Chief Justice Roberts Depicts a Hard-Boiled Detective in ‘Three-Dollar Steak’ ‘Hood

It reads like a chapter from a hard-boiled detective novel: Narcotics officer Sean Devlin is working undercover in a neighborhood “tough as a three-dollar steak. Devlin knew. Five years on the beat, nine months with the Strike Force. He’d made fifteen, twenty drug busts in the neighborhood.” But it’s not.…

Oct 14, 2008 8:57 PM CDT

Author of Fake Memoir Can Keep $32.4M Judgment, Court Rules

The author of a best-selling Holocaust memoir that was eventually determined to be a fake can keep the $32.4 million judgment she was awarded in an earlier case, along with a ghostwriter, a Massachusetts judge has ruled. But that may not be the end of the story. A lawyer for…

Oct 13, 2008 8:15 PM CDT

Faulty Eyewitness IDs, Flawed Procedures Helped Convict the Innocent

Faulty eyewitness identifications, often encouraged by flawed police procedures, were the reason why 18 of 19 men cleared by DNA evidence since 2001 were initially convicted in Dallas County, Texas, of crimes that they didn’t commit. Although the county has led the nation in the number of defendants exonerated by…

Oct 13, 2008 5:14 PM CDT

Wavering Client Finally Pleads in John Cusack Stalking Case

A plea deal that would have saved a woman accused of stalking actor John Cusack from further jail time almost fell through, after she told a Los Angeles judge that her counsel had used scare tactics to coerce her into agreeing to it. But as 33-year-old Emily Leatherman was about…

Oct 10, 2008 7:43 PM CDT

J&J Paid $68M to Settle Lawsuits Over Birth-Control Patch, News Agency Says

It has cost the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company an estimated $68.7 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits alleging that users were injured or, in 20 cases, even died as a result of using the company’s Ortho Evra birth-control patch. Complaints filed in state and federal court on behalf of…

Oct 10, 2008 5:59 PM CDT

Top Alaska Court Allows Sarah Palin Probe to Proceed; Report Expected Tomorrow

The Alaska Supreme Court refused today to call a halt to the “Troopergate” ethics investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president. That sets the stage for the state legislature to release tomorrow, as planned, its investigative report about whether Palin abused her power as governor by…

Oct 10, 2008 12:40 AM CDT

Sharpton, 7 Others, Convicted in Protest of NYPD Sean Bell Shooting

New York police officers who fired 50 shots at an unarmed African-American man leaving his bachelor party in 2006 weren’t convicted of any crime, although the gunshots killed Sean Bell. But eight individuals, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, were, after protesting three detectives’ acquittal in the Sean Bell case earlier…

Oct 9, 2008 4:49 PM CDT

Judge Axes Evidence in Sen. Stevens Case, Due to Prosecutor Errors

The judge in the corruption case against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has eliminated some evidence due to Brady violations. Because prosecutors didn’t turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense, as required, two sets of evidence will be excluded. They are: business records related to potential testimony by a construction foreman…

Oct 9, 2008 12:11 AM CDT

Suspended Texas Lawyer’s ‘Sextortion’ Conviction is Upheld

A suspended Texas lawyer who was convicted, along with his attorney wife, of misusing the civil litigation system in a scheme to extort money from men who had sex with her, has lost an appeal. The 4th Court of Appeals today upheld Ted Roberts’ 2007 conviction on three counts of…

Oct 8, 2008 11:34 PM CDT

Does Kentucky Have Power to Regulate Internet Gambling?

A court order that requires domain names for 141 websites that offer online gambling to be turned over to government officials should be reversed, counsel for the defendants and trade associations argued yesterday in an unusual Kentucky case. The domain names have been treated by the court as though they’re…

Oct 8, 2008 11:20 PM CDT

Suspended Mo. Attorney Gets 4 Years in $866K Bank Fraud

A Missouri lawyer who was previously suspended from practice in an unrelated matter has been sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for defrauding a bank of more than $866,000. Dawn Renee Harpster, 38, pleaded guilty last year to five counts of bank fraud. Doing business as Northwest Missouri Title…

Oct 8, 2008 8:13 PM CDT

Judge Tosses Blonde’s Suit Claiming Wrong Hair Dye Ruined her Social Life

A Connecticut judge has refused to get tangled up in a woman’s suit claiming a switched tube of hair dye turned her blonde hair brown, wreaking havoc on her social life. Judge Richard Gilardi of Bridgeport said the root of the problem with the lawsuit was a lack of evidence…

Oct 8, 2008 5:24 PM CDT

More NY Lawyers Settle in Pension Probe; $1.28M Recovered to Date by AG

Several more New York lawyers have settled with the state attorney general in an ongoing probe of attorneys in private practice who for years have simultaneously earned benefits and government pension fund credit by being reported as employees of school districts and other government entities. So far, the probe has…

Oct 8, 2008 5:00 PM CDT

NYC Lawyer Pleads to Violation in Attorney Groping Case

A New York City lawyer who had been facing misdemeanor charges for allegedly groping two female attorneys has pleaded guilty to a lesser violation. Richard Dienst, 67, was given a conditional discharge in exchange for his guilty plea to second-degree harassment, reports AM New York. If he completes a year…

Oct 8, 2008 12:07 AM CDT

Judge Asked Too Many Questions, Requiring New Trial

In a rare rebuke to the chief judge in Baltimore, a Maryland appellate court has found that he asked too many questions during a jury trial of an armed robbery case last year, requiring a reversal of the defendant’s conviction and a new trial. The 125 questions that Baltimore City…

Oct 7, 2008 11:50 PM CDT