Verdicts & Settlements

Biggest-Bucks Divorce in UK History? Madonna and Guy Ritchie Split

It’s apparently all over between Madonna and Guy Ritchie, who have reportedly separated in a split that is likely to cost the material girl big bucks. Depending on whether the divorce case goes forward in the United Kingdom or the United States, the British film director can expect as much…

Oct 15, 2008 11:29 PM CDT

Civil Rights Leader Gets 15 Years for Incest, Expected to Die in Jail

The Rev. James Bevel, a civil rights leader who once served as a top aide to Martin Luther King Jr., was sentenced today to 15 years for incest. It was the harshest sentence that Virginia Circuit Judge Burke McCahill could have given the 71-year-old defendant, who is reportedly dying of…

Oct 15, 2008 10:34 PM CDT

Neb. Lawmaker’s Suit Against God is Dismissed; Almighty Couldn’t Be Served

A Nebraska lawmaker has failed in his attempt to hold God accountable for worldwide natural disasters and alleged terroristic threats made in his name. Because God couldn’t be served with the lawsuit, it was dismissed yesterday by Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon Polk, reports the Associated Press. The plaintiff,…

Oct 15, 2008 6:54 PM CDT

Chief Justice Roberts Depicts a Hard-Boiled Detective in ‘Three-Dollar Steak’ ‘Hood

It reads like a chapter from a hard-boiled detective novel: Narcotics officer Sean Devlin is working undercover in a neighborhood “tough as a three-dollar steak. Devlin knew. Five years on the beat, nine months with the Strike Force. He’d made fifteen, twenty drug busts in the neighborhood.” But it’s not.…

Oct 14, 2008 8:57 PM CDT

Author of Fake Memoir Can Keep $32.4M Judgment, Court Rules

The author of a best-selling Holocaust memoir that was eventually determined to be a fake can keep the $32.4 million judgment she was awarded in an earlier case, along with a ghostwriter, a Massachusetts judge has ruled. But that may not be the end of the story. A lawyer for…

Oct 13, 2008 8:15 PM CDT

Faulty Eyewitness IDs, Flawed Procedures Helped Convict the Innocent

Faulty eyewitness identifications, often encouraged by flawed police procedures, were the reason why 18 of 19 men cleared by DNA evidence since 2001 were initially convicted in Dallas County, Texas, of crimes that they didn’t commit. Although the county has led the nation in the number of defendants exonerated by…

Oct 13, 2008 5:14 PM CDT

Wavering Client Finally Pleads in John Cusack Stalking Case

A plea deal that would have saved a woman accused of stalking actor John Cusack from further jail time almost fell through, after she told a Los Angeles judge that her counsel had used scare tactics to coerce her into agreeing to it. But as 33-year-old Emily Leatherman was about…

Oct 10, 2008 7:43 PM CDT

J&J Paid $68M to Settle Lawsuits Over Birth-Control Patch, News Agency Says

It has cost the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company an estimated $68.7 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits alleging that users were injured or, in 20 cases, even died as a result of using the company’s Ortho Evra birth-control patch. Complaints filed in state and federal court on behalf of…

Oct 10, 2008 5:59 PM CDT

Top Alaska Court Allows Sarah Palin Probe to Proceed; Report Expected Tomorrow

The Alaska Supreme Court refused today to call a halt to the “Troopergate” ethics investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president. That sets the stage for the state legislature to release tomorrow, as planned, its investigative report about whether Palin abused her power as governor by…

Oct 10, 2008 12:40 AM CDT

Sharpton, 7 Others, Convicted in Protest of NYPD Sean Bell Shooting

New York police officers who fired 50 shots at an unarmed African-American man leaving his bachelor party in 2006 weren’t convicted of any crime, although the gunshots killed Sean Bell. But eight individuals, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, were, after protesting three detectives’ acquittal in the Sean Bell case earlier…

Oct 9, 2008 4:49 PM CDT

Judge Axes Evidence in Sen. Stevens Case, Due to Prosecutor Errors

The judge in the corruption case against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has eliminated some evidence due to Brady violations. Because prosecutors didn’t turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense, as required, two sets of evidence will be excluded. They are: business records related to potential testimony by a construction foreman…

Oct 9, 2008 12:11 AM CDT

Suspended Texas Lawyer’s ‘Sextortion’ Conviction is Upheld

A suspended Texas lawyer who was convicted, along with his attorney wife, of misusing the civil litigation system in a scheme to extort money from men who had sex with her, has lost an appeal. The 4th Court of Appeals today upheld Ted Roberts’ 2007 conviction on three counts of…

Oct 8, 2008 11:34 PM CDT

Does Kentucky Have Power to Regulate Internet Gambling?

A court order that requires domain names for 141 websites that offer online gambling to be turned over to government officials should be reversed, counsel for the defendants and trade associations argued yesterday in an unusual Kentucky case. The domain names have been treated by the court as though they’re…

Oct 8, 2008 11:20 PM CDT

Suspended Mo. Attorney Gets 4 Years in $866K Bank Fraud

A Missouri lawyer who was previously suspended from practice in an unrelated matter has been sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for defrauding a bank of more than $866,000. Dawn Renee Harpster, 38, pleaded guilty last year to five counts of bank fraud. Doing business as Northwest Missouri Title…

Oct 8, 2008 8:13 PM CDT

Judge Tosses Blonde’s Suit Claiming Wrong Hair Dye Ruined her Social Life

A Connecticut judge has refused to get tangled up in a woman’s suit claiming a switched tube of hair dye turned her blonde hair brown, wreaking havoc on her social life. Judge Richard Gilardi of Bridgeport said the root of the problem with the lawsuit was a lack of evidence…

Oct 8, 2008 5:24 PM CDT