Sentencing/Post Conviction

Lawyer Convicted of Extortion for Allegedly Offering False Client Testimony for $107K

A California lawyer was convicted yesterday of extortion and obstruction of justice for allegedly seeking $107,000 in exchange for a client’s favorable false testimony concerning the target of a grand jury investigation of immigration fraud. Alfred Nash Villalobos, 46, could get as much as 30 years when he is sentenced…

Sep 1, 2011 6:50 PM CDT

Banned from Her Home for 3 Years for Feeding Bears, Ore. Woman Loses Appeal

Despite the help of an animal law attorney, Geordie Duckler, who handled her appeal pro bono, a former resident of an Oregon Coast town has lost a legal fight over her conviction for feeding local black bears. Karen Noyes, 63, lost an appeal and the Oregon Supreme Court recently declined…

Sep 1, 2011 6:00 PM CDT

After Philadelphia Prison Case, Many Still Weigh the Effects of Releasing Inmates

Inmates in cages in a hallway at Chino State Prison wait for housing assignments or for pending appointments. Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images. Deputy Philadelphia District Attorney Sarah Vandenbraak Hart winced as a federal judge signed off on a settlement the city reached in a 1986 jail overcrowding case. The…

Sep 1, 2011 7:40 AM CDT

Sept. 9, 1971: Attica Prison Revolt Begins

Photo by AP Photo/Bob Schultz Opened in 1931, New York’s Attica prison was among the last of the fortress-style “big houses” built in the U.S.—and by the ’70s, big trouble was brewing behind its 30-foot wall. With 380 guards, all but one of whom were white, imposing an onerous daily…

Sep 1, 2011 5:00 AM CDT

Paroled in Manslaughter Case, Law Student Will Resume Legal Education This Fall

Corrected: Convicted of manslaughter after stabbing a friend to death five years ago, a law student at the University of British Columbia had to interrupt his legal education after completing his second year to serve two years in jail. But Sasan Ansari, 32, will return to school at the UBC…

Aug 31, 2011 10:06 PM CDT

Convicted Serial Killer Loses Bid for New Trial Based on Juror Upset by His Wink

Convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell won’t get a new trial based on a juror’s reaction to his wink. Judge Dick Ambrose of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, refused Sowell’s defense attorneys’ request on Tuesday, report CNN and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The motion had claimed the jury forewoman revealed she was prejudiced…

Aug 31, 2011 1:46 PM CDT

Any Profit From Ex-Detroit Mayor’s Memoir Will Help Pay His $860K Restitution, Appeals Court Rules

A book written by the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, apparently will have to be a best-seller before he sees any substantial profit from writing it. A Michigan appellate court today upheld an earlier Wayne County Circuit Court ruling that any money Kilpatrick makes will be put in an…

Aug 30, 2011 10:55 PM CDT

Fasting After Life Term in Child Bride Sex-Assault, Warren Jeffs Is Now in Coma, Expected to Recover

Sentenced to life earlier this month in a Texas sex-assault case concerning a child bride, the leader of a fringe polygamous religious sect is in a medically induced coma as a result of post-sentencing fast but expected to recover. Prison officials said Warren Jeffs, 55, was not on a hunger…

Aug 30, 2011 5:22 PM CDT

Nearly 5 Years Later, Most or All of Jena 6 in College; Victim Is Working and Moving On with Life

Six young black men who faced potential hefty prison sentences five years ago, as high school students, in a controversial case that led to civil rights protests and substantially reduced charges are now doing well. At least five of the so-called Jena 6 are in college, according to the Associated…

Aug 25, 2011 10:21 PM CDT

Inmate’s ‘Cop Out’ Jail Phone Message to Lawyer Wasn’t Privileged, 2nd Circuit Rules

A Spanish-speaking New York prison inmate found out the hard way that sending a message to his lawyer via his sister, on a recorded jailhouse phone, wasn’t a good idea. Joel Rodriguez had no reasonable expectation of confidentiality when he told her to tell his attorney that he wanted to…

Aug 25, 2011 8:17 PM CDT

Jury Says Retired Lawyer Jailed in $30M Client Art-Theft Case Must Pay $3.1M to Homeowner

A retired Massachusetts lawyer who served as what a judge called a “glorified fence” in a former client’s record-breaking 1978 theft of major art works from a private home has been hit with a $3.1 million judgment. Robert Mardirosian, 77, is serving a seven-year federal prison term after being convicted…

Aug 24, 2011 9:02 PM CDT

Remorseful Mom Who Nixed 10-Year Deal Gets 12-Year Sentence in Pet Python’s Killing of Tot

An apologetic mother of a 2-year-old child killed at home by her pet Burmese python was sentenced today to a 12-year prison term—as was the mother’s boyfrend—after being convicted last month of manslaughter by a Florida jury. Jaren Hare, 21, and Charles “Jason” Darnell, 34, had rejected a pretrial deal…

Aug 24, 2011 8:33 PM CDT

3rd Circuit Nixes 55-Month Term for Former Pa. Lawmaker Fumo, Tells Sentencing Judge to Try Again

Nixing a 55-month fraud sentence for a powerful former Pennsylvania senator and attorney that sparked public outrage, an appeals court today found a federal district judge had abused his discretion and told him to resentence Vincent Fumo. However, Judge Ronald Buckwalter isn’t required by the decision of the Philadelphia-based 3rd…

Aug 23, 2011 8:15 PM CDT

Ex-Judge’s Son Gets 3-11 for Hollywood-Style Heist of $1.5M in Chips from Las Vegas Casino

It clearly wasn’t the cleverest of crimes, but it made headlines because it was so brazen: An unknown suspect was caught on security cameras as he rode a motorcycle up to the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas last December, walked in, still wearing his helmet, and robbed a craps table…

Aug 23, 2011 7:02 PM CDT

Exonerated Marsh & McLennan Execs Sue Spitzer and Slate for Libel Over Ex-AG’s Column Comments

About a month after the felony antitrust convictions of two former Marsh & McLennan executives were thrown out last year, former New York attorney general and governor Eliot Spitzer wrote a column in Slate. It defended his work on a 2004 case that resulted in an $850 million settlement by…

Aug 22, 2011 11:40 PM CDT