10th Circuit Court

Federal Indictment Says Law Firms Were Victimized in Adoption Scam

A couple victimized two law firms, as well as other entities, in an adoption scam, a 30-count federal grand jury indictment contends. It charges Serena Carol Matthews and Scott Smith of Oklahoma City with conspiracy and mail fraud, among other crimes, for allegedly presenting her as pregnant and posing as…

Jun 23, 2011 5:32 PM CDT

Judge Nixes Perjury Case Against Investigator Blamed for Wrongful Conviction; Defendant Got $10M

A Colorado judge has nixed seven perjury counts against a Fort Collins police investigator blamed for the wrongful 1999 murder conviction of Timothy Masters, finding that the state had brought the case too late. Agreeing with a defense argument that the statute of limitations had run on the charges against…

May 9, 2011 7:47 PM CDT

Jail Recorded Almost 300 Law Firm-Client Phone Calls, Then Passed Them on to Others in Discovery

A federal judge in Tennessee has ordered attorneys involved in a sex-trafficking case not to listen to recordings of almost 300 phone calls between Bell Tennent & Frogge and the law firm’s jailed clients while he figures out how to handle the fact that they were provided to others in…

Apr 28, 2011 6:01 PM CDT

Ex-Bronco Romanowski Sues Greenberg Traurig, Says He Got Hit Hard By Tax Shelter OK’d By Firm

A former linebacker for the Denver Broncos has sued Greenberg Traurig, alleging that the law firm was getting a secret 7 percent commission for steering investors to a thoroughbred breeding-rights leasing program at the same time that it advised him and his wife about the appropriateness of the tax shelter.…

Apr 13, 2011 10:10 AM CDT

Ex-Prosecutor Faces Legal Ethics Case Concerning His Work on 1990s Capital Murder Trials

Accused by the Oklahoma Bar Association of intentional misconduct in his handling of a 1993 murder case, a former Oklahoma County prosecutor says he did nothing wrong. Brad Miller, who is now 50, is accused in a legal ethics case of using eyewitness testimony that he should have known was…

Mar 28, 2011 3:58 PM CDT

Story of New Law Grad’s Work on Tim McVeigh’s Defense Team Is Headed to Hollywood

As 1996 neared an end, Chad Wold’s life course seemed set. The recent law school graduate was getting settled in Montana, where he was about to get married and study for the bar exam. But then, in a stunning development that illustrates the power of networking, came a phone call…

Mar 17, 2011 7:52 PM CDT

Prolific Colo. Consumer Attorney Filed Two-Thirds of State’s FDCPA Cases Since 2007

Depending on which side of the dispute you’re on, lawyers who sue creditors under statutes such as the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act are either knights fighting for often-violated consumer rights or opportunists pursuing profitable technical violations on behalf of deadbeats. But there’s one thing that’s clear to all…

Feb 28, 2011 10:58 PM CST

10th Circuit Judge to Become New Dean of Pepperdine Law School

A federal appeals judge who took senior status earlier this year will begin a new job on June 1. Deanell Tacha of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will become the dean of Pepperdine University’s law school, report LJWorld.com and the Los Angeles Times blog L.A. Now. She…

Feb 11, 2011 1:16 PM CST

Okla. Inmate Executed with Sedative Used in Animal Euthanasia

An Oklahoma inmate executed Thursday is believed to be the first person put to death with a sedative used to euthanize animals. Officials substituted pentobarbital in the execution of John David Duty because of a nationwide shortage of the drug usually used, sodium thiopental, according to the Associated Press and…

Dec 17, 2010 12:35 PM CST

Jury Reaches Verdict in Elizabeth Smart Child-Kidnap Case: Guilty

Despite an insanity defense, a street preacher accused of kidnapping a then-14-year-old girl from her bedroom at knifepoint in 2002 and keeping her in hiding for nine months as his “celestial wife” before she was freed in 2003, has been convicted in federal court in Utah. Brian David Mitchell was…

Dec 10, 2010 6:34 PM CST

Fed’l Judge Puts Hold on Okla. Amendment Banning State-Court Use of Shariah Law

A federal judge in Oklahoma today issued a permanent injunction putting a hold on a new ban on the use of Shariah law in the state’s courts, until it can be determined whether the voter-approved state constitutional amendment that implements the ban violates the U.S. Constitution in multiple ways. “While…

Nov 30, 2010 1:03 AM CST

Ex-Attorney Gets 21 Months for Stealing $343K from Law Firm

A disbarred Georgia lawyer was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison yesterday for stealing a little over $343,000 from the law firm at which the then-attorney then worked. Steven Zagoria, 59, was found guilty, according to prosecutors, of forging a partner’s endorsement on checks to the firm for attorney’s…

Nov 23, 2010 5:41 PM CST

Did Feds Use ‘Nuclear Bomb’ Grand Jury Subpoena to Silence Critic? Supreme Court May Decide

When a federal prosecutor tried to get a gag order against an outspoken critic of a case holding two Midwestern doctors criminally accountable for prescribing pain medication, a judge said no, citing the First Amendment. But then the prosecutor issued what Siobhan Reynolds describes as a “nuclear bomb” of a…

Nov 1, 2010 8:39 PM CDT

Retired Lawyer Pleads in Child Porn Case; Feds to Ask for 5- to 9-Year Sentence

A retired New York lawyer living in New Mexico originally facing five counts of receiving child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography pleaded guilty this week to one count of knowingly receiving an illicit video. In exchange, the prosecution agreed to recommend a sentence of five to nine…

Sep 1, 2010 9:09 PM CDT

Lawyer Who Wore Wire to Build Case Against Claimed Client: ‘I Had to Do It’

Was attorney Terry Haddock acting as Shannon Williams’ lawyer during six months of jail visits in 2009? Or was Haddock, at least as Williams saw it, exploiting his attorney status to help his claimed client run a marijuana ring? That appears to be the central issue in a federal court…

Aug 20, 2010 8:35 PM CDT