Sentencing/Post Conviction

Penn State OK’d $60M settlement with two dozen claimed Sandusky abuse victims, WSJ says

The trustees of Pennsylvania State University have OK’d a settlement of approximately $60 million with about two dozen claimed victims of sexual abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The university announced a settlement on Friday, but not the amount or the number of victims, and declined to comment…

Jul 18, 2013 3:30 PM CDT

‘Certifiable saint’ but for indirect role in $2.4B fraud, ex-BigLaw partner gets 1 year in club fed

A former partner of Mayer Brown was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in federal prison for his role in a $2.4 billion fraud on investors in Refco Inc. Joseph P. Collins, 62, was allowed to remain free pending his appeal in the Manhattan federal court case, reports…

Jul 16, 2013 3:45 PM CDT

California’s beleaguered prison now faces investigation into mental health facilities

As problems with California’s prison system continue to mount, on Thursday the state Senate confirmed Gov. Jerry Brown’s pick to run the system, and a federal judge ordered an investigation of conditions at mental health facilities in the prisons. Despite objections from Republicans in the legislature, Jeffrey Beard, who retired…

Jul 12, 2013 7:15 PM CDT

Motorcycle for-sale sign allowed search of suspect’s home, 8th Circuit rules

A man with a felony record wound up sentenced to a new 34-month prison term because he put a for-sale sign on a motorcycle at his Kansas City home. If the sign hadn’t been there, police would have needed a warrant to enter his yard, which was fenced and posted…

Jul 12, 2013 5:50 PM CDT

Former Fried Frank worker who stole $376K in copy machine toner not likely to repay firm

A former longtime employee in the copy department of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson is likely to serve at least a year of the one- to three-year term to which he was sentenced last month by a New York judge for stealing more than $376,000 worth of copy machine…

Jul 12, 2013 11:25 AM CDT

Woman sentenced to write an essay on ‘how a lady should behave in public’

A North Carolina woman who pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly and resisting arrest has been sentenced to write an essay on how to behave like a lady in public. Tonie Marie King, 21, received the unusual sentence recently from Halifax County, N.C., judge Brenda Branch, the Los Angeles…

Jul 11, 2013 9:36 PM CDT

Former surgeon charged with choking and sexually harassing flight attendants

Former Houston hand surgeon Michael Brown is planning a change of plea on federal charges that he choked a flight attendant and threatened to strip naked on a flight from London to Miami last January. Brown, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, is scheduled for a change of…

Jul 11, 2013 7:20 PM CDT

Utah scraps English-only rule for prison visits

Prisoners and their visitors in Utah will be able to speak to one another in Spanish or any other language now that officials there have scrapped an English-only policy. The new prison chief, Rollin Cook, pledges to have signs advising “All visits will be conducted in English” to be removed…

Jul 11, 2013 7:15 PM CDT

Record 12-year term OK’d for ex-associate who revealed BigLaw deal info in $37M insider-trade scheme

A federal appeals court was not persuaded by a former BigLaw associate’s argument that a record 12-year prison term for insider trading should be reduced. Matthew Kluger “was an attorney who took an oath to uphold the law,” said the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its Tuesday opinion…

Jul 10, 2013 4:34 PM CDT

29,000 California prisoners on hunger strike to protest isolation

Some 29,000 prisoners began a hunger strike this week in California to protest the conditions of isolation units and the quality of the food they are receiving. The strike is being considered among the largest, if not the largest in the state’s history, according to the Atlantic Wire and Los…

Jul 10, 2013 4:00 PM CDT

Courtroom suicide should be a wake-up call that security is needed at rural courthouse, says sheriff

Following the apparent courtroom suicide on June 29 of a man who had just been convicted of a crime for which he could have been sentenced to a maximum of 7 years, it looks like a courthouse in rural Missouri is going to amp up security measures. Officials met on…

Jul 9, 2013 4:30 PM CDT

Lawyer who used hidden video cameras to peep on tenants will get psychotherapy rather than jail time

A Maryland lawyer who pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors for spying on his tenants “with prurient intent” won’t have to go to jail for the crime. Instead, Dennis Alan Van Dusen of Chevy Chase was sentenced on Tuesday to five years’ probation and fined $2,500, the Washington Post reports. The…

Jul 3, 2013 12:25 PM CDT

Man who attacked deputy US marshal while trying to file pro se federal suit gets 2 years

Noting that Larry Paul Delaney had a history of assaulting law enforcement officers, the U.S. Marshal’s office sent four deputies to arrest him on an outstanding warrant at a federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., two years ago. The warrant came to their attention when Delaney went through security en…

Jul 1, 2013 6:30 PM CDT

How did America’s police become a military force on the streets?

Editor’s Note: In a remarkable speech at the National Defense University in May, President Barack Obama signaled an end to the war on terrorism; maybe not an end, it turns out, but a winding down of the costly deployments, the wholesale use of drone warfare, and even the very rhetoric…

Jul 1, 2013 10:10 AM CDT

House arrest for disbarred lawyer in $400K client theft; another gets time in $885K case

A twice-disbarred Massachusetts lawyer avoided jail for stealing over $400,000 from multiple clients. However, Raymond J. Paczkowski Sr., 77, was sentenced on Wednesday in Middlesex Superior Court to spend two years on house arrest, wearing a GPS monitor, after he pleaded guilty to multiple larceny counts, reports the Lowell Sun.…

Jun 28, 2013 1:55 PM CDT