Government

Virginia Tech Gunman’s Missing Counseling File Found in Doctor’s Home

A missing file for the gunman who killed 32 people in a 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech has been discovered in the home of a former director for the college’s counseling center. An announcement that the the file had been located was made this morning by Gov. Timothy Kaine,…

Jul 22, 2009 7:09 PM CDT

Lawyers Seek Order Barring Top Pa. Court from Destroying Juvenile Records

A bizarre case in which two senior Pennsylvania judges in Luzerne County are accused of having profited from putting hundreds—or perhaps even thousands—of youths into juvenile detention for relatively minor offenses has now taken a strange new twist. In an extraordinary filing, lawyers representing individuals allegedly improperly jailed as youngsters…

Jul 21, 2009 10:59 PM CDT

Attorney Sought Law Firm Job to Spy On Businessman, Regulator Says

An unidentified attorney got a job at a law firm in Munich in order to gather information about businessman Leo Kirch on behalf of Deutsche Bank NG, says a German data-protection regulator. The bank, which is Germany’s biggest, called off the effort by private detectives it had retained before the…

Jul 21, 2009 8:27 PM CDT

Ariz. AG Lays Off 12 Lawyers, 17 Staff

In another sign of the dismal economic times, the Arizona attorney general’s office is axing 12 lawyers and 17 staff members to close a $2 million budget gap. The layoffs were announced today by the Attorney General Terry Goddard and will take effect July 31, reports the Phoenix Business Journal.…

Jul 20, 2009 8:28 PM CDT

Fed’l Judge Says CIA Fraud Shielded Agent from Suit, Mulls Possible Lawyer Sanctions

A federal judge is mulling possible sanctions for multiple Central Intelligence Agency lawyers and two other CIA employees including a former director after finding that the agency committed fraud while seeking to protect an agent from a lawsuit. The former director, George Tenet, filed an affidavit in 2000 asking that…

Jul 20, 2009 7:03 PM CDT

Former SEC Chair Christopher Cox to Join Bingham McCutchen

Former top securities regulator Christopher Cox is to join Bingham McCutchen as a partner in the firm’s Orange County, Calif., offices and a principal in its Bingham Consulting Group subsidiary. Cox, who left his post as chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January, is a former Republican…

Jul 17, 2009 4:42 PM CDT

New Series on Tracking Terrorists Features CIA Lawyer-Turned-Journalist

The star of a controversial new series on NBC featuring journalists tracking down accused war criminals and terrorists is a former CIA lawyer. Adam Ciralsky became an NBC producer after leaving the CIA in a dispute with his supervisors, the New York Observer reports. Now he is billed as the…

Jul 17, 2009 2:47 PM CDT

AIDS Group Sues LA County to Enforce Porn Film Condom Regs

A prominent advocacy group that works to prevent the spread of AIDS has sued Los Angeles public health officials in an effort to force enforcement of regulations requiring actors in porn films to wear condoms. The Los Angeles County Superior Court suit filed today by AIDS Healthcare Foundation also seeks…

Jul 16, 2009 10:42 PM CDT

Pa. Lawyer Didn’t Pursue Plea Offer, Spent $1M to Cut 5 Months Off Sentence

Offered a suggested deal in a federal corruption case that would, at one point, have required him to plead guilty to one fraud count in exchange for a prison term of no more than five years, Vince Fumo reportedly wound up instead taking the case to trial. That strategy cost…

Jul 16, 2009 8:30 PM CDT

Homeless Man, Jailed for Failing to Support Boy Who Wasn’t His, Is Freed

A homeless man has been freed after sitting in a South Georgia jail for more than a year for failing to pay the costs of supporting a boy who wasn’t his. Frank Hatley won his freedom yesterday after a Georgia judge concluded he was indigent, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “I…

Jul 16, 2009 12:03 PM CDT

Judge Sent Homeless Man to Jail for Failing to Support Boy Who Wasn’t His

Updated: A judge who put a homeless man in a South Georgia jail for more than a year for failing to pay the costs of supporting his “son” knew there was no biological tie. On Wednesday, the judge released Frank Hatley after his new lawyer from the Southern Center for…

Jul 15, 2009 12:37 PM CDT

$8.4M Sex, Lies & Texts Settlement Puts Detroit Lawyers on Hot Seat

The first of a series of legal ethics hearings has begun concerning five attorneys involved in a controversial $8.4 million settlement by the city of Detroit over police whistle-blower litigation and steamy text messages sent by the former mayor to his then-top aide. Because the text messages also showed that…

Jul 14, 2009 6:12 PM CDT

Colo. Governor Gave No-Bid Contract to Hogan & Hartson, His Ex-Firm

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter hired his former law firm, Hogan & Hartson, to analyze the federal stimulus bill and make sure the state gets its share of federal funds. Ritter hired Hogan & Hartson under a no-bid contract and has so far used $40,000 in federal funds to pay the…

Jul 14, 2009 1:21 PM CDT

Ex-Colleagues Say AG Holder Is Aging Before Their Eyes

Former colleagues of Attorney General Eric Holder say he is “working like a dog” and aging before their eyes. Holder is fielding criticism from Republicans who see him as soft on terrorism and from some Democrats disappointed to learn he is mulling the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate…

Jul 14, 2009 12:54 PM CDT

Prominent Fla. Lawyer Faces Bar Case in Settlement ‘Scheme to Defraud’

A proposed class action settlement characterized by a state appeals court as “a scheme to defraud” has put a prominent Miami lawyer in hot water with the Florida Bar, along with his opposing counsel in the case. In a disciplinary filing, the lawyer regulatory agency contends that founding partner Hank…

Jul 13, 2009 7:18 PM CDT