Sentencing/Post Conviction

Phila. PI Attorney Who Stole $2.1M From Clients, Law Firm and Family Gets 5 Years in Club Fed

Sentenced today to five years in federal prison for fleecing at least 10 victims, including his clients, then-law partner and family members of $2.1 million between 2005 and 2008, a Philadelphia personal injury lawyer was taken directly into custody. Jeffrey Abramowitz, 48, “spun a web of lies, hoaxes and bogus…

Mar 9, 2012 10:56 PM CST

NC Judge Suspended Without Pay for 75 Days in Ticket-Fixing Case

A North Carolina judge who handled at least 82 traffic tickets outside the normal legal process—and probably many more, the state supreme court said—has been suspended without pay for 75 days. Forsyth District Judge Denise Hartsfield has declined to comment but told a weekly newspaper in Winston-Salem that the punishment…

Mar 9, 2012 9:14 PM CST

Lawyer’s Wife Sues the Other Woman; Lawyer, Ex-Mistress are Accused in Murder Attempts on His Spouse

Updated: Yvonne Stern has reconciled with her husband, Texas personal injury attorney Jeffrey Stern, despite what authorities say was his role in arranging with his then-mistress to attempt to murder his wife. But Stern is suing the ex-mistress, Michelle Cabrera Gaiser, for damages over the injuries she suffered when she…

Mar 9, 2012 8:40 PM CST

Houston Jury Says Feds Can Seize $330M From Foreign Bank Accounts Controlled By R. Allen Stanford

In a move that puts the feds a step closer to getting their hands on the assets of onetime billionaire R. Allen Stanford’s business operations, but doesn’t assure that they will beat out competing claimants, a federal court jury in Houston decided on Thursday that Stanford must forfeit to U.S.…

Mar 9, 2012 5:55 PM CST

Ex-BigLaw Partner’s Jail Time in $370K Client Theft Case Will Let Him Work and Make Restitution

A former partner of Quarles & Brady was sentenced to five years of probation today following his December conviction in a $370,000 client theft case. As a condition of his probation, Jeffrey Elverman, 52, will spend seven months in jail, but will be allowed out on 72 hours of work…

Mar 8, 2012 11:21 PM CST

DC Court of Appeals Disbars Lawyer for ‘Egregious’ Murder-Case Misconduct While a Federal Prosecutor

Updated: Former assistant U.S. attorney G. Paul Howes was disbarred today by the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals. It is the first time in at least 10 years that a lawyer anywhere in the country has been disbarred by judges over conduct as a federal prosecutor, USA Today reports. Howes…

Mar 8, 2012 7:34 PM CST

Tool Available to Law Firms Compares Judge-by-Judge Sentencing Patterns

A report unveiled Monday based on a massive new interactive database that looks at criminal sentences rendered judge-by-judge throughout the federal judiciary quickly attracted perhaps as much criticism as praise, but the surest and biggest result is this: The genie is out of the bottle. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse’s…

Mar 7, 2012 10:48 PM CST

Former Governor Wants to Launch a Law School Pardons Clinic

Former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich is seeking a host for the nation’s only law school clinic and training program devoted to pardons. Ehrlich, a senior counsel at King & Spalding, plans to contribute to and raise money for the clinic, ProPublica reports in a story published with the Washington Post.…

Mar 7, 2012 3:10 PM CST

Stanford Verdict Could Be Bad News for Attorney and 2 Law Firms Facing Related Civil Cases

A prosecution verdict today in the criminal fraud case against onetime billionaire R. Allen Stanford could be bad news for an attorney and two law firms facing civil cases related to his crimes. Attorney Thomas Sjoblom, who formerly worked for both Chadbourne & Parke and Proskauer Rose after leaving the…

Mar 7, 2012 12:14 AM CST

5 Claimed ‘Anonymous’ Affiliates Face US Hacking Case After Leader Took Plea in Secret Court Hearing

In what authorities are calling the first case brought in the United States against defendants they say are affiliated with the hacktivist groups known as Anonymous and Lulz Security, five individuals have been charged with the help of a notorious computer vandal who reportedly served as an FBI informant. Known…

Mar 6, 2012 11:47 PM CST

Thanks to Jailhouse Yoga, Defendant Says He Has Walked Away From Medical Marijuana

Once a man who admittedly lived life in a haze of marijuana, a defendant who says he turned his life around in a Colorado jail through the practice of yoga over a three-month period has persuaded a judge to give him a significant sentencing break. Although he was already on…

Mar 6, 2012 10:50 PM CST

Failure to Check Alcohol-Test Devices Could Put Up to 1,000 Calif. Drunk-Driving Convictions at Risk

When police in San Francisco’s traffic division stop a motorist on suspicion of drunken driving, one of the first steps they take during a field sobriety test is to check the individual’s blood alcohol level on a portable device to determine whether it exceeds 0.08 limit. The devices are supposed…

Mar 6, 2012 9:12 PM CST

Ex-Marine Gets 15 Years for Attacking Wife During Hearing in Judge’s Chambers

A man who fractured his wife’s nose and broke her jaw during an attack last year in a Florida judge’s chambers was sentenced Friday to a maximum 15-year prison term after pleading no contest to an aggravated battery charge. Paul Henry Gonzalez Jr., 29, apologized profusely and sought, with his…

Mar 6, 2012 7:44 PM CST

Onetime Billionaire R. Allen Stanford Convicted on 13 of 14 Counts in $7B Federal Fraud Trial

A federal jury in Houston has convicted onetime billionaire R. Allen Stanford on 13 of the 14 counts he faced in a $7 billion fraud case. The charges concerned what prosecutors described as a Ponzi scheme focused on bogus certificates of deposit issued by an offshore bank Stanford controlled. Some…

Mar 6, 2012 6:15 PM CST

Oregon Appeals Court Opinion Includes Cartoon Doodle that Helped Convict Holdup Suspect

The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a man whose cartoon doodle of a holdup was used as evidence against him. The appeals court opinion (PDF) included the picture, found on a school paper in the backpack of burglary and robbery defendant Ariel Jasso. Police responding to…

Mar 6, 2012 4:25 PM CST