Verdicts & Settlements

Top Okla. Court Says Ex-Judge Forfeited Most of $7,800 Monthly Pension by Misconduct on Bench

A former Oklahoma judge who served felony time for indecent exposure after being convicted of using a sexual device while on the bench has forfeited most of his $7,800-a-month pension, including all of that amount attributable to his 22 years as a judge, the state’s top court ruled yesterday. Former…

Oct 26, 2011 10:43 AM CDT

Expert Witness Lawyer Morphed Stock Photos Into Alleged Child Porn for Exhibits, Told to Pay $300K

A lawyer who digitally altered stock photographs of children into explicit images to help in the defense of child pornography cases in Ohio and Oklahoma has himself been found to have crossed the line and ordered by a federal court yesterday to pay $300,000 in damages. The judgment against attorney…

Oct 22, 2011 2:03 AM CDT

Outside Lawyer Censured for ‘Intimate Contact’ with Detroit Mayor While Monitoring City Police

A Washington, D.C., lawyer has been censured for having “intimate contact” one night with Detroit’s then-mayor while she was serving as independent police monitor for the city. Sheryl Robinson Wood said during a disciplinary hearing that she considered the incident a moral and personal lapse and later realized it also…

Oct 22, 2011 1:11 AM CDT

Public Defender Loses Lawsuit Over His Courtroom Scuffle with Deputies

A Louisiana criminal defense lawyer with a reputation for being feisty and abrasive has lost a federal civil rights lawsuit he filed over a December 2009 scuffle with deputies in a Orleans Parish Criminal District courtroom. Ruling yesterday after a one-day bench trial in August, U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance…

Oct 20, 2011 7:00 PM CDT

Citigroup to Pay $285M to Settle SEC Allegations It Bet Against Its Own Clients on Mortgage CDO

Citigroup has agreed to pay $285 million to settle allegations that it sold mortgage-backed securities to clients while betting against the investments through short sales. The payment settles a suit filed Wednesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, report the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and a press…

Oct 20, 2011 12:21 PM CDT

Top Mass. Court Offers Suit Options for Buyers of Property Won in Dubious Foreclosure Cases

What’s a good-faith buyer to do if a foreclosed property purchased from a financial institution turns out to have been seized in a questionable court case? That was the issue that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court addressed today in litigation brought by a real estate developer who converted a foreclosed…

Oct 18, 2011 10:54 PM CDT

New Del. Chancery Chief Awards $1.26B in Stock Suit, Raps Wachtell Ex-Partner re ‘Unfair’ Valuation

Saying that a special committee used “a series of economic contortions” to justify a Delaware corporation’s plan to pay a premium $3.1 billion price to purchase a company owned by a majority shareholder, the new chief judge of the state’s chancery court has awarded $1.26 billion to the purchaser, Southern…

Oct 17, 2011 10:55 PM CDT

Lawyer Who Allegedly Kicked In Boyfriend’s Door and Had Knife in Bra Is Suspended

The Indiana Supreme Court yesterday ordered the interim suspension of a lawyer accused last year of kicking in a door, committing a battery on her boyfriend and carrying a knife in her bra. It was allegedly was discovered by a jail corrections officer. Olubunmi Okanlami was found guilty of battery…

Oct 7, 2011 6:17 PM CDT

NY Foreclosure Law Firm Settles with Feds for $2M; Deal Creates ‘Howls of Protest’

A New York law firm once accused of “operating in a parallel mortgage universe” has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a probe into misleading foreclosure documents. The Steven J. Baum law firm did not acknowledge wrongdoing in the deal, but did admit occasional “inadvertent errors” it attributed to…

Oct 7, 2011 11:55 AM CDT

Attorney Michael Dowd Wins Another Murder Case With Battered-Woman Defense

Updated: In what could be his last such trial, a New York lawyer known for his defense of women who kill their spouses has won another victory in a tough case. Barbara Sheehan admittedly fired 11 bullets at her husband from two guns in February 2008, inside their New York…

Oct 6, 2011 9:40 PM CDT

Muslim Woman Jailed After Trying to Enter Ga. Court With Religious Head Covering Settles Suit

A Muslim woman who reportedly was jailed for contempt of court after she refused to remove her religious head covering when she tried to accompany a nephew to a Georgia municipal court several years ago has settled her lawsuit over the incident in the city of Douglasville. Lisa Valentine protested…

Oct 6, 2011 5:15 PM CDT

Arrested in Seattle, Computer Security Expert Creates Searchable Website of Police Dashcam Video Log

Arrested three years ago in Seattle when a police officer apparently didn’t appreciate his “brainiac” attitude after he was questioned about swatting giant sponge golfballs from bar to bar during a pub crawl, a computer security expert has fought back bigtime. Once the obstruction case against him was dismissed, Eric…

Oct 6, 2011 12:44 AM CDT

Ex-CFO of Top Australian Law Firm is Arrested, Accused of Stealing Six-Figure Sum

The former chief financial officer of a top Australian law firm was held without bail as a flight risk on charges that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Minter Ellison and/or its partners. Federal police arrested Craig Raneberg, 38, at the Sydney airport after he made a quick…

Oct 5, 2011 10:32 PM CDT

Federal Judge Fines NY Lawyer $6,400 for Rambling Depositions in Losing Case

Warned last year by a federal judge in New York that he would face sanctions if his discovery rambled on at length or didn’t elicit relevant information, an attorney has now been sanctioned “$400 per wasted hour.” Attorney Michael Q. Carey was fined a total of $6,400 by Judge Paul…

Oct 5, 2011 9:23 PM CDT

Oops. Yemen Man Cited in Alabama Senators’ Push to Enforce New Immigration Law Is a Legal Resident

A misdemeanor charge against an alleged undocumented immigrant in Etowah County, Ala., last week was billed as the first in the state under a controversial new law that allows police to check the immigration status of an arrestee. Taken into custody Friday for allegedly obstructing a government operation during a…

Oct 5, 2011 7:24 PM CDT