1st Circuit Court

Tenenbaum Admits Music Downloading, RIAA Plaintiffs Move for Directed Verdict

After years of high-profile litigation, Joel Tenenbaum came clean today in his testimony in an ongoing federal trial over illegal music downloading. “I used the computer. I uploaded and downloaded music. This is how it is. I did it,” he told a packed courtroom. It included as spectators copyright scholars…

Jul 30, 2009 11:42 PM CDT

Harvard Is Blocking Continued Work on RIAA Case, Law Student Says

After a change in dean, Harvard Law School is reportedly making it difficult for a student to continue working on a high-profile file-sharing case that she says she has “lived and breathed and eaten” since September 2008. The school is not only refusing to provide the certification letter that Debbie…

Jul 27, 2009 4:57 PM CDT

Judge Axes Grad Student’s Counterclaim for ‘Abuse of Process’ in RIAA Case

An attempt by a Boston University graduate student who is a defendant in a high-profile music downloading case to turn the tables on the Recording Industry Association of America has been blocked by the federal judge overseeing the case. In a ruling yesterday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner rejected defendant…

Jun 16, 2009 10:01 PM CDT

Mass. Lawyer Accused of Laundering Client’s Funds Gets 87 Months

A Massachusetts lawyer prominent in the state Republican party has been sentenced to 87 months in federal prison concerning his representation of a jailed client in a federal narcotics case. Lawrence Novak, 57, who pleaded guilty in February to money laundering and obstruction, was also fined $20,000 and required to…

May 26, 2009 9:31 PM CDT

1st Circuit Nixes Webcast of RIAA Hearing

Ruling on a writ of mandamus seeking to quash a federal judge’s plan to allow a gavel-to-gavel webcast of a hearing in a hard-fought case over music downloading, the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held today that a webcast falls squarely within an existing ban on cameras in…

Apr 16, 2009 9:16 PM CDT

Ginsburg Doesn’t Understand ‘Brouhaha’ About Foreign Law References

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she is baffled by the controversy surrounding some justices’ reference to foreign law in their U.S. Supreme Court decisions. “I frankly don’t understand all the brouhaha lately from Congress and even from some of my colleagues about referring to foreign law,” Ginsburg said. She spoke…

Apr 13, 2009 11:23 AM CDT

1st Circuit Mulls Plan to Webcast Hearing in RIAA Music Downloading Case

Does webcasting court proceedings violate the traditional rule against cameras in the courtroom? And, if so, should the traditional rule be relaxed? That is the issue that the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is now expected to decide on an expedited basis, after a U.S. District Court judge…

Apr 10, 2009 12:49 AM CDT

1st Circuit Ruling Helps Working Moms

Workplace discrimination against pregnant women and women with children is commonplace, many suspect, but hard to prove. But a decision yesterday (PDF) by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may offer some relief. Reversing a dismissal, by a federal judge in Maine, the appeals court said plaintiff Laurie…

Mar 27, 2009 9:20 PM CDT

Judge Scolds Harvard Prof in RIAA Case

It was initially U.S District Judge Nancy Gertner’s idea that a pro se defendant in a high-profile file-sharing case should seek help from a renowned Harvard Law School professor. But she didn’t hesitate to lecture the errant law prof—and threaten him with sanctions—for ignoring discovery rules, recounts Robert Ambrogi in…

Mar 12, 2009 1:17 AM CDT

Mass. Clerk Accused of Courtoom Sex, Promising Leniency to Defendant

A state-court clerk in Massachusetts has been accused of having courtroom sex with a defendant and promising her leniency in exchange. James “Jim” Burke, 41, was arrested this morning by federal agents and is accused in a federal criminal case with having sex with an accused defendant in an empty…

Feb 27, 2009 8:54 PM CST

Swayed By Lawyer’s Book, Jurors Ask Judge for New Trial in ‘93 Case

They found Alfred Trenkler guilty in 1993 in a fatal 1991 bomb incident that killed a Boston police officer who tried to defuse the device. But now three members of the jury would like to see him get a new trial, reports the Boston Globe. Each has written a letter…

Feb 23, 2009 4:42 PM CST

Extortion Victim’s Name a Secret Under Federal Plea Deal With Alleged Prostitute

Yesterday the Boston Globe reported about a federal plea deal in which an alleged prostitute accused of extorting a six-figure sum from a married businessman is to get a light sentence in exchange for following the prosecution’s lead and keeping the victim’s name secret. Now the Boston federal district court’s…

Feb 18, 2009 8:53 PM CST

Blogger Calls 1st Circuit Libel Ruling ‘Dangerous’

A blogger calls a recent libel ruling by a federal appeals court “the most dangerous libel decision in decades.” The Friday decision by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a true statement can be subject to a libel suit if it was said with actual malice,…

Feb 17, 2009 5:16 PM CST

Are Banks Liable for Madoff Losses? Plaintiffs Say Yes, Argue Multiple Theories

It’s a bad time to be a bank with any connection to the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme that Bernard Madoff is accused of running, or any other such claimed investment swindle. Seeking to recover from banks assets that may not be recoverable from those alleged to be directly responsible…

Feb 7, 2009 1:50 AM CST

Chief Judge Blasts US Attorney Over ‘Egregious Failure’ to Disclose

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has issued a 42-page ruling blasting the U.S. attorney there over an alleged pattern of violations by his office of a requirement that exculpatory evidence must be disclosed to the defense in criminal cases. “The egregious failure…

Jan 27, 2009 5:46 PM CST