This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Legal

  • Now I’m Really Confused

    This one has me scratching my head – bigtime.

    According to his military lawyer, accused Fort Hood mass-murderer Nidal Hasan offered twice to plead guilty.  The Army apparently rejected both offers.

    FORT HOOD, Texas — The Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre twice offered to plead guilty and “accept full responsibility” for the crime earlier this year, his lead defense attorney said Thursday.

    After the government turned him down in January, Maj. Nidal Hasan offered to plead guilty again last month without a deal — and also tried to challenge Army rules that prohibit a judge from accepting a guilty plea to murder in a death penalty case, said Lt. Col. Kris Poppe.

    I can understand why the Army likely refused the first attempt at a plea; it almost certainly included conditions as part of the deal that the Army didn’t want.  And I can technically understand the second refusal, too.  After all, rules are rules.

    No, what confuses me is the rule itself.  Why in the hell can’t an Army judge accept a guilty plea in a case where the death penalty is on the table?

    If any of our military lawyers (or other readers) could clarify, I’d be greatly obliged.  Because that just doesn’t pass the common-sense test.

    Sometimes it really seems like Pogo was right after all.

     

     

  • Lawyer Scams Vets, Gets Busted, Pleads

    In The Inferno, Dante reserves a special place in his vision of hell for those who commit fraud and treachery.  He assigns them the worst punishments in hell:  the innermost two circles.

    I have to say that I agree with Dante.  And in my book, it’s doubly bad when the victim of fraud or treachery is helpless, due to either age or infirmity.  So let’s just say I really don’t like those who defraud or betray aged or seriously disabled veterans – particularly when they’ve been appointed to a position of special responsibility and trust.

    Yet as Jonn reminded us a few weeks ago such treachery happens with disturbing regularity.  People appointed to look after aged or seriously disabled veterans’ finances steal from them all the time.  IMO the VA needs to do a better job in selecting those it appoints to look after the financial matters of veterans.

    But sometimes one of these treacherous, thieving bastards gets nailed.  And when that happens it brings a smile to my face.

    I’m smiling today.

    It seems an unscrupulous attorney in Houston was preying on veterans.  He was acting as fiduciary for some aged and/or seriously disabled vets; his wife was in on the scam.   They were diverting at least some of those vets’ funds for their own use.

    They got caught.  And yesterday, Joe B. Philips plead guilty in  Federal court to conspiracy to make false statements, misappropriation by a fiduciary, and signing a false income tax return.  His wife, Dorothy Philips, plead guilty to conspiracy and making a false statement on an income tax return.

    Joe’s facing up to 13 years in prison; Dorothy is facing up to 8 years.  And I doubt they’ll get to share a cell.

    The Philips are somewhat aged themselves – in their 70s, to be precise.  You know what? I don’t care.  I still hope the judge gives each of them the maximum allowable sentence.

    That would really make me smile.

  • Another Reason to Be Glad You’re an American

    “An Englishman’s home is his castle.” That principle has a long history – back to Roman times, in fact.  And it was perhaps most clearly expressed by Blackstone in Merry Olde England in his Commentaries on the Laws of England (Book 4, Chapter 16). But it looks like it’s no longer true – at least not in England.

    Seems that a man and his wife were renting a farm house at Melton Mowbray, Leics.  They had been victims of a series of recent break-ins. The last break-in occurred while the man and his wife were at home.

    Confronting the would-be burglars, the man grabbed a lawfully-owned firearm. He apparently fired at the four intruders.  They left.

    His aim was apparently reasonably good.  Two of the four intruders later sought medical treatment for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The police arrested all four of them.

    But it seems the man’s marksmanship was his undoing.  The police also arrested the farmer and his wife on “suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.”

    This isn’t the first time in recent years a man has been arrested for defending himself or his family in his own home in the United Kingdom. In fact, on at least two previous occasions the individual defending his home/family has ended up convicted and sentenced to prison.

    Blackstone must be spinning in his grave. I’m certainly glad some of my ancestors valued their freedom and caught a boat heading west.

  • Doubling Down – Stupidly

    Looks like Bissonnette is planning on thumbing his nose at DoD.  And he and his lawyer are planning to use an . . . interesting and novel legal argument:

    According to the letter, the nondisclosure agreement signed by Bissonnette when he was a SEAL only applied to “specially identified Special Access Programs” and not missions such as the May 1, 2011 raid.

    That’s an argument that may come as a surprise to some legal experts, who considered the Pentagon’s case against Bissonnette a “slam dunk” given his failure to submit his book for pre-publication review.

    The letter referenced above was from Bissonnette’s lawyer to DoD.

    I’m thinking that Bissonnette needs to find another lawyer – fast.  Because this one appears to be leading him down the proverbial primrose path.   Another way to describe the legal theory his lawyer is using besides “interesting and novel” is “naive, foolish, and wrong” – or, alternatively, “hope you enjoy your stay at the crossbar hotel”.

    Classified information nondisclosure agreements are like burqas – they cover damn near everything.  They’re not limited to “specially identified Special Access Programs”.

    IMO, teh stoopid appears to be running amok here. Bissonnette needs to remember that when a sledgehammer hits a walnut, it’s generally not the sledgehammer that gets damaged.  And DoD knows how to swing a sledge.

    ———

    For those interested:  a decent but brief analysis of Bissonnette’s actual legal situation may be found here.  He’s on damned thin ice.

  • Witnesses submit that Kyle popped Ventura

    Earlier this year, we learned that Jimmy Janos, otherwise known as Jesse Ventura decided to cut out some of Chris Kyle’s profits from his book “American Sniper” by suing the REAL DEAL SEAL for the story about Kyle knocking down Janos is a brief barroom brawl for defamation of character. Well, it seems that Kyle has eye witnesses to the questioned punch according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. One of them was our buddy, Gold Star Mom Debbie Lee;

    Debbie Lee, who lost her son, Navy SEAL Marc Lee, in Iraq, said the group was mournful and respectful. “It was not a belly-up-to-the-bar type of event,” she wrote.

    One of her son’s SEAL teammates introduced her to Ventura, whom she found offensive. She said she heard him criticize the war and called President George Bush a jerk. Ventura could only talk about himself, she said. “He did not say he was sorry for my loss.”

    Most of those swearing out declarations said they didn’t see Kyle hit Ventura, but claim they saw the commotion and the aftermath as Kyle took off and Ventura clambered up from the ground with blood on his face.

    Jeremiah Dinnell, an active-duty SEAL, was the exception.

    “I heard Ventura say that we shouldn’t be over in Iraq, doing what we were doing,” he said. “And then he said that the SEALs deserved to lose some guys because of what we were doing.

    “That’s when Chris punched him. All of us wanted to. Chris was just the first one to pop him.”

    I wonder how many witnesses Janos will provide who swear he didn’t hit the floor.

  • Manning’s Lawyers Are Whining Again

    It seems that PFC Bradley Manning’s lawyers are whining again.  But this time, it’s not over his treatment.

    No, this time they are objecting to the fact that Army officials seemed more concerned about potential bad publicity than Manning’s comfort and “feelings”.   At least, that’s what I get from this paragraph:

    David Coombs, a lawyer for Pfc. Bradley Manning, argued at a pretrial hearing that prosecutors have yet to turn over about 700 emails in their possession. But he said the emails he’s already aware of paint a portrait of a military more concerned with combating negative publicity than with Manning’s welfare and reveal that high-level officials, including a three-star general, were briefed about the conditions of his confinement.

    Gee, a 3-star General was concerned that the Army might get bad publicity.  I’m shocked, I say – shocked!

    Frankly, I’m not surprised that senior Army leadership is concerned about avoiding bad publicity for the Army.  That’s part of their job.  And I couldn’t personally give a hoot in hell if they were more concerned about protecting the Army than about how Manning was inconvenienced, provided they ensured he was treated humanely – which they did.

    Let me recap a few pesky things called “facts” that Manning’s lawyers don’t seem to want to discuss.  Manning was confined to his cell for 23 hours daily.  So?  Many prisoners who might be at-risk from other inmates (or who are dangerous) are similarly kept isolated.

    Manning was also evaluated as a suicide risk. Therefore, for a period of time at Quantico his clothing was temporarily taken away.  This was done as a protective measure to ensure he didn’t attempt to harm himself with same.  He was later provided with a suicide-prevention smock.

    But for a while, he had to make do with skivvies – and even sleep in them, without his jammies.  Oh, the horror!   The horror!

    Were Manning’s “feelings hurt” by such “terrible” treatment?  Whoop-te-doo.  Personally, I couldn’t give the proverbial flying . . . flip if they were.    Perhaps he should have thought about the possibility that he’d go to prison – and be treated harshly but humanely as a prisoner – before disclosing several hundred  thousand classified documents to persons not authorized to receive them.

    Humane treatment doesn’t necessarily equate to pleasant conditions.  “Three hots and a cot”, adequate shelter, and protection from physical harm or abuse qualifies.  And having to sleep in your skivvies (or naked) because you’re thought to be suicidal and your normal clothing has been taken away to ensure you don’t harm yourself with it does not qualify as abuse.

    Manning didn’t give a damn about how his actions affected the Army or his brothers/sisters in arms – or his country.  So as long as he’s treated humanely, why should anyone in the Army give a rat’s ass whether he’s comfortable or his feelings get hurt?

  • Prosecutor back-pedals on Alemar, speaks an incoherent language

    You guys have been sending and posting links for few days to update the story about William Everett Alemar who was arrested by Deputies Barney Fife and Goober Pyle, apparently in Martinsburg, WV for running “near schools” with a an Airsoft rifle. If given an opportunity, I think I’d punch the Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neely square in whatever set of genitalia she’s sporting for not being able to admit she and the police are wrong in pursuing charges against the young soldier. To wit;

    “He is not a danger to the community. It was unique to that moment in time,” Games-Neely said…

    That’s how she explains the fact that the soldier, from whom they demanded $50,000 cash bond before he could be released, is suddenly out and running free in the streets without a bond. Yeah, unique to the incident; wtf does that mean? He was a danger to the community last week, but after a week locked up with Otis Campbell, he’s not a danger anymore?

    “In the beginning of this case, the Martinsburg Police Department was confronted with a fairly dangerous situation at Martinsburg High School,” Games-Neely said.

    I’ve yet to see the address where he was arrested so I can see for myself whether he was “at” or “near” any schools at all. And it was the first day of school, he probably didn’t even realize he was near any school, even if he was.

    Games-Neely said “we honor our military” and Alemar was a “decent soldier,” but told the court that authorities were met with a unique set of circumstances at the time of the incident and that police acted appropriately.

    Yeah, if they “honor the military”, they’d swallow their pride and back off from the charges. Period. This is all about Mayberry RFD trying their best to mitigate their idiocy.

    “The State believes that the evidence supports the felony with which Mr. Alemar is charged. I personally commend the law enforcement officers on the first day of school for their quick and decisive actions in protecting the community and its children from harm,” Games-Neely said in her statement.

    Who did the police protect? Who did Alemar threaten? Now Games-Neely is taking quick and decisive actions to save her own reputation. And that of the Mayberry Police Department.

    It seems that a condition of Alemar’s release is that he has to “seek treatment” for his problem. The problem being that he’s training for Ranger School, I guess, because no one in their right mind would want to graduate from Ranger School.

    “If I had the ability to charge somebody with being stupid, I would have,” Games-Neely said.

    But she supports the military. The only stupidity here is the overreaction by the Martinsburg justice system. And, of course, Big Army is more than willing to be her accomplice in the never-ending boobery;

    The state has been in touch with Mr. Alemar’s military commanders since last week in an effort to assist in preserving his military career if possible,” Games-Neely later said in a statement.

    If he’s the terrorist you said he was last week, ditz, why would you want to preserve his military career, unless you’re willing to also admit that these are specious charges and you’re an incompetent, drama queen boob.

  • Trouble in “Big Sister’s” Fiefdom

    Well, it looks like there may well be trouble in paradise. If you define “paradise” as being the Department of Homeland Security, that is.

    There may well be substance to recent allegations of a female “frat-house” environment and/or nepotism at the highest echelons of DHS. Additional witnesses apparently have come forward implicating Suzanne Barr, chief of staff for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in having engaged in “lewd behavior”.

    Yeah, I know boys will be boys and girls will be girls and all that.  And I generally don’t really give the proverbial rat’s ass what consenting adults do in private on their own time, provided they don’t ask me to approve or somehow financially subsidize their shenanigans.

    But I do care about fair and equal treatment under the law.  Here we seem to have indications of possible serious wrongdoing by very senior people at DHS – wrongdoing that was both unlawful and blatantly discriminatory.  There are now two different lawsuits accusing multiple senior DHS officials as having engaged in discriminatory practices and/or lewd behavior to an extent which arguably constitutes a hostile workplace. And reportedly there are other witnesses to similar misconduct who have not yet been deposed.

    I think I’m seeing smoke.  And I remember an old saying that starts off something like, “Where there’s smoke . . . .”

    This also makes me wonder about a couple of other things. First: will our “liberal brethren” who’ve been campaigning for years for gender equality call for the wholesale firing of implicated DHS senior leadership – or will they ignore the whole matter or argue for leniency? I think we already know the answer if those accused here were male.  But they’re not.

    And second: will DoJ actually conduct a real investigation of these allegations to determine if there’s been a violation of civil rights and/or Federal employment law? Or will these allegations be ignored and/or swept under the rug – just like the Philadelphia NBPP election incident?