Government

Sen. Stevens Verdict: Guilty on All 7 Counts

Ted Stevens, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican, was found guilty today by a federal jury on all seven counts in a corruption case. After the almost unprecedented criminal conviction of a sitting U.S. senator, it will be up to Alaska voters to decide whether to re-elect the 84-year-old Stevens, who has…

Oct 27, 2008 8:11 PM CDT

Deliberating Jurors Spot Error in Sen. Stevens Indictment

Oops. Jurors deliberating in the high-profile corruption trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens spotted an error today in his indictment. “Among the seven charges in the indictment, prosecutors said that Stevens checked ‘no’ on financial documents when asked whether he received any gifts in 2001. Actually, he checked ‘yes,’ and…

Oct 27, 2008 7:21 PM CDT

Funeral Home Eviction Issue: What to Do With the Bodies?

A recent eviction at a business in Pontiac, Mich., posed some unusual issues for officials responsible for emptying the premises. That’s because the business was a funeral home, and among the items that had to be removed were five bodies and the cremated remains of 22 others, reports the Detroit…

Oct 27, 2008 6:12 PM CDT

Pictures Point to Sheriff’s Deputy in Fatal Crash, But Civilian is Blamed

A convicted sexual predator who previously worked as a deputy for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office may have caused a fatal accident in Florida for which a civilian has been blamed. Traffic accident reconstruction experts who reviewed photographs kept by attorneys of the Volkswagen Passat involved in the the six-year-old…

Oct 27, 2008 5:30 PM CDT

Claim: Top Aides in Mexican AG’s Office Were Organized Crime Informants

Two top employees in the unit of the Mexican attorney general’s office charged with fighting organized crime have instead been passing information to the Beltran-Leyva drug trafficking cartel about federal investigations, surveillance targets and planned raids, prosecutors contend. At least three other lower-level federal police agents also were involved in…

Oct 27, 2008 4:43 PM CDT

E-Mail Goof Creates Buzz Over Judge, Prosecutor Jobs

Authorities in New Jersey’s Washington Township apologized to a local municipal judge and prosecutor Tuesday after an e-mail blast posted their jobs to lawyers throughout the county. The gaffe caused a stir a couple weeks ago when the Morris County Bar Association sent out an e-mail asking interested applicants to…

Oct 22, 2008 10:23 PM CDT

Credit Default Swaps Grab Attention of Prosecutors and the SEC Chairman

State and federal prosecutors in New York are investigating whether traders manipulated the market for credit default swaps, a kind of securitized insurance that protects against defaults on corporate bonds. The joint investigation by U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia of Manhattan and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo focuses on whether…

Oct 20, 2008 6:33 PM CDT

DOJ Memo: White House May Ignore Laws Barring Hiring Bias in US Programs

A 2007 Justice Department memorandum maintains the Bush administration has the power to give money to groups that hire persons of only one faith, even for federal programs created under laws barring discrimination. The New York Times says the memorandum by the Office of Legal Counsel was “quietly posted” on…

Oct 20, 2008 5:19 PM CDT

Simpson Thacher Charging Only $300K to Advise Treasury on Bailout

Simpson Thacher will collect only $300,000 over the next six months for advising the Treasury Department on its bailout of financial institutions, a total based on slashed legal fees. The American Lawyer puts the average hourly rate charged by the firm at $79 an hour when legal assistants are included…

Oct 20, 2008 11:05 AM CDT

1st Circuit: Gov’t Must Pay $3.1M to Family of Man Slain By FBI Agent’s Informants

A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a $3.1 million award against the U.S. government to the family of a Quincy, Mass., fisherman killed in 1984 by leaders of the Winter Hill gang in Boston, after a rogue FBI agent leaked information to them. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of…

Oct 18, 2008 2:41 AM CDT

Deaf Patient to Get Record $400K from N.J. Doc Who Didn’t Provide Interpreter

Not providing the sign language interpreter requested by a deaf patient has cost a New Jersey doctor a $400,000 jury award. And it may cost Jersey City rheumatologist Robert Fogari personally, since his malpractice carrier has denied coverage, as well as a defense, reports the New Jersey Law Journal. The…

Oct 17, 2008 9:15 PM CDT

Reversing Course, Illinois Sheriff Will Evict Residents of Foreclosures

After making media waves throughout the country with an unusual refusal to enforce court eviction orders in mortgage foreclosure cases last week, the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, has backed down. Assured that new procedures would be implemented to protect innocent tenants from being evicted because their landlord hadn’t paid…

Oct 16, 2008 10:57 PM CDT

Recover Executive Perks, or Else, NY’s AG Tells Insurance Giant AIG

In an effort that could serve as a blueprint to others seeking to hold executives of failed corporations financially responsible, the attorney general of New York has sent a letter to insurance giant AIG. In it, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says the company must recover millions of dollars in “unreasonable”…

Oct 15, 2008 7:22 PM CDT

Federal Juror Names No Longer Secret in Western District of Pennsylvania

A rule that required the names of federal jurors to be kept secret in the Western District of Pennsylvania has been revoked by the chief judge there. The move by U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose followed a media protest over a decision by another judge there to keep juror names…

Oct 14, 2008 11:14 PM CDT

N.Y. Gov Signs New Pension Law to Rein In Renegade Gov’t Legal Advisers

By early next year, New York lawyers who erroneously wind up in the state’s pension plan could face hefty penalties. A new law signed Friday by Gov. David Patterson makes pension fraud a felony, rather than a misdemeanor; allows criminal punishment of those who “improperly” receive pension benefits; and gives…

Oct 13, 2008 10:59 PM CDT