Evidence

Plaintiffs in EEOC Suit Must Turn Over Cellphones and Facebook Account Passwords, Judge Rules

Saying that the plaintiffs in an employment discrimination case have not produced all material relevant to the defendant employer’s somewhat unclear discovery requests, a federal magistrate judge has ordered them to provide their cellphones and passwords to Facebook and other social media accounts. A special master will compile their text…

Nov 20, 2012 9:27 PM CST

Federal Judge: Goodyear, Lawyers Must Pay Plaintiff’s Legal Fees, Provide Sanctions Order to Others

Finding that a major corporation and two lawyers representing the company blatantly ignored or evaded their discovery obligations and comparing a hard-fought products liability action to the endless Jarndyce and Jarndyce case described in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, a federal judge in Arizona has ordered Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.…

Nov 16, 2012 3:45 PM CST

Eye Contact with Gang-Rape Case Defendant Leads to 2-Year Jail Term for Potential Juror

After a prosecutor noticed that a man in the jury pool had made eye contact with a defendant in a Massachusetts gang-rape case, authorities apparently watched Jonathan G. Ngarambe closely. Although he told the trial judge last March that he didn’t know any of the parties in the case, an…

Nov 15, 2012 8:59 PM CST

New Testimony from ‘I Did It. So What?’ Murderer, Who Tells Jury of Armed Robberies at Sentencing

A man who was convicted of capital murder after telling a California jury, “I did it. So what?” during his testimony at trial is doing himself further damage at sentencing. In what the San Francisco Chronicle describes as five self-destructive minutes Wednesday on the stand, 49-year-old Nathan Burris, who has…

Nov 15, 2012 5:45 PM CST

Lawyer Takes Plea, Gives Up Law Practice; Records Showed He Charged Extra for DWI Backdating

A North Carolina lawyer had initially intended to fight a criminal obstruction of justice case over the work he did for clients charged with driving while intoxicated. But after counsel for James Crouch, 46, found out last week that he had altered law office paperwork, after he was criminally charged,…

Nov 14, 2012 5:59 PM CST

With Help of Forensic Science, More Is Learned About Woman Found Dead 41 Years Ago

A young woman found dead in a Florida lake 41 years ago with a belt around her neck is still unidentified. But a new round of recent studies, aided by major developments in forensic science since her body was exhumed for more testing in 1986, has given investigators hope that…

Nov 12, 2012 9:23 PM CST

6th Circuit: Lawyer Must Pay $300K for Using Stock Photos to Create Morphed Child Porn Trial Exhibit

A federal appeals court has approved a $300,000 award against an Ohio lawyer rejecting the attorney’s arguments that he had a First Amendment right to morph stock photos into child pornography as part of a defense trial exhibit and that no one was harmed by his doing so. Dean Boland…

Nov 12, 2012 6:08 PM CST

Unusual Identical Twin Fratricide Case Lacks Evidence; Survivor Says He Is Innocent, Misses Brother

Wael Ali’s family and friends stood by him when he was accused of killing his identical twin brother, Wasel, by strangling him with his bare hands in a fit of anger. But investigators considered him a lead suspect as they mulled the location where the 19-year-old’s body was found, in…

Nov 9, 2012 10:25 PM CST

Double Whammy for ‘I Did It. So What?’ Defendant: Jury Convicts, Voters Didn’t Repeal Death Penalty

An unrepentant pro se defendant in a California capital murder case was, not surprisingly, convicted Wednesday following his testimony to a jury earlier this week that “I did it. So what?” But Nathan Burris, 49, also lost out on another possible chance to derail a potential death sentence when California…

Nov 7, 2012 11:23 PM CST

Eager to Watch Football Game, Murder Defendant Tells Jury ‘I Did It, So What?’

Eager to get back to jail and watch the Monday night football game, a pro se capital murder defendant tried to make it easy for a jury to convict him of two slayings. “I did it. So what?” Nathan Burris told the jury hearing his case in California’s Contra Costa…

Nov 6, 2012 10:52 PM CST

Supreme Court Considers Class Action Hurdles; Is Materiality a Requirement in Stock Case?

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in a pair of cases in which companies are trying to fend off class action lawsuits by fighting certification. A comment by Justice Antonin Scalia illustrated why corporate defendants want evidence issues resolved at the certification stage, report the New York…

Nov 6, 2012 3:13 PM CST

Rare Sex-Crimes Case re US General May Be Derailed by Prosecution’s Access to His Email with Counsel

Just as an Article 32 military hearing was about to get under way concerning evidence that could be used in an unusual criminal case against a U.S. Army general concerning his sexual conduct with subordinates at American military bases and abroad, a major issue has come to light. Contrary to…

Nov 5, 2012 10:33 PM CST

Same Fake Art Pops Up Again and Again, In ‘Whac-a-Mole’ Experience for Experts Asked to Authenticate

What happens when a painting or other art work by a famous artist turns out to be a fake? The answer to that question often isn’t clear. Criminal cases over forged art, which are relatively rare, can result in the seizure of the fakes by the FBI, and judges can…

Nov 5, 2012 8:25 PM CST

Utah AG Takes Stand re Unpaid $5.6M Judgment, Expresses Relief at Not Being Jailed

The top law enforcement official in Utah expressed relief Friday that a state court judge didn’t jail him for contempt months after a deadline expired for paying a $5.6 million court-ordered bill for services provided by a Salt Lake City accountant, lawyers and others responsible for liquidating a communal land…

Nov 2, 2012 9:41 PM CDT

Judge Orders Newspaper to ID Claimed Juror Who Commented Online During Trial Over Attorney’s Murder

A Kansas newspaper has been ordered to identify to a local court an anonymous website poster who claimed to be a juror in a high-profile felony murder trial in which an attorney was the victim. The Topeka Capital-Journal will not contest the Shawnee County District Court order requiring it to…

Nov 1, 2012 5:44 PM CDT