Legal News Archive For
April, 2010

Two Inmates Charged in Defrauding IRS to the Tune of Millions

Added: 2010-04-30 08:14:35

A routine check for contraband at a Monroe County, Florida jail has uncovered a nationwide scam in which prison inmates have been filing fraudulent tax returns, receiving a total of over $1 million in refunds. According to investigators, the inmates used fake business names, other inmates' socia...

New Jersey Teen Charged with Killing Five in Two-Month Spree

Added: 2010-04-29 13:03:43

A New Jersey teenager who is accused of having murdered five people over the course of two months has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Shiquan Bellamy, 19, appeared in a courtroom to answer charges of felony murder, armed robbery and various weapons offenses—charges for which he ...

Female Truck Driver Can Bring Discrimination Suit Against Trucking Company

Added: 2010-04-28 11:43:53

A female truck driver will be allowed to bring suit against the trucking company that she says wrongfully fired her, according to a federal appeals court's decision. Deborah Merritt had worked for the Thomasville, North Carolina-based Old Dominion Freight trucking company for six years, as a “...

Marlborough Diamond Thieves Arrested Outside Mob Boss's Home

Added: 2010-04-27 09:50:40

Two aging jewelry thieves who were once convicted of a multi-million dollar heist, and who have connections to the Chicago mob, have again been arrested on charges related to a bank robbery plot. Joseph “Jerry” Scalise, 73 and Arthur Rachel, 71, were convicted of a 1980 robbery of the elite ...

One Convicted Exec is Sentenced, Other Recovers from Suicide Attempt

Added: 2010-04-26 10:12:41

Two executives of concrete testing company Testwell Laboratories had been scheduled for sentencing on Wednesday, but the second suicide attempt of one defendant meant that only one received a sentence. Vincent Barone and V. Reddy Kancharla had been found guilty on several counts of falsifying re...

String of Pipe Bombs Planted By Suspect Who Was Angry At Government

Added: 2010-04-23 11:01:25

A Texas man has been indicted on charges relating to a series of pipe bombs and other incendiary devices, which he allegedly placed in mailboxes and other locations around east Texas. Larry Eugene North, 52, is said to have planted 36 separate explosive devices since early February. According to...

District Attorney's Office Files Charges Against Deputies

Added: 2010-04-22 12:59:55

In a rare criminal filing against law enforcement officials who work in a jail, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office has charged three sheriff deputies of beating an inmate. The charges stem from an incident in January 2006, when the three deputies punched and kicked inmate Gabriel ...

So-Called Wiccan Stabs Man Listed in Phone As “Sacrifice”

Added: 2010-04-21 13:28:46

A woman who describes herself as a Wiccan is being held on charges of fatally stabbing a man, whose phone number she had listed in her cell phone alongside the word “sacrifice.” Angela Sanford, 30, claimed that the stabbing was in self-defense, and that the man had tied her up with her own r...

Supreme Court to Hear Case of Soldier's Father, Homophobic Church

Added: 2010-04-20 09:57:35

The case of a grieving father from York, Pennsylvania, who has been locked in a lengthy legal battle with a Baptist church, will be heard by the Supreme Court next fall. Albert Snyder is suing the Westboro Baptist Church after members of its congregation picketed the funeral of Snyder's son, Lan...

Gender Discrimination Alleged Against Wall Street Firms

Added: 2010-04-19 10:49:59

Two female executives at high-profile Wall Street banks have accused their respective employers of discrimination. One claims that she was first “mommy-tracked,” and then fired, when she began having children. Charlotte Hanna was a former vice president in the human resources division at Gol...

So-Called Jihad Jane and Colorado Mom Plead Not Guilty on Terror Charges

Added: 2010-04-16 11:41:11

Two American women were indicted last week on charges related to terrorism, and one has pleaded not guilty at an arraignment. Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, who is currently being held in a Philadelphia federal detention center, faces federal charges of conspiracy to support terrorism overseas. Also named ...

U.S. Admits Killing Afghan Women During Special Ops Raid

Added: 2010-04-15 14:07:54

An American-led military command in Afghanistan has admitted culpability in the killing of three Afghan women, despite having previously denied both involvement in the incident and taking actions to cover it up. The women were killed in February, during an American Special Operations assault tha...

Olympian's Brother Charged with Manslaughter

Added: 2010-04-14 10:25:33

Mark Kerrigan, the brother of figure skater and former Olympian Nancy Kerrigan, has been indicted on manslaughter charges in the death of his father, after becoming embroiled in an altercation with the elder Kerrigan. Daniel Kerrigan, 70, was determined by the coroner's office to have died from ...

Woman Used Second Identity to Escape Abuser and Commit Fraud

Added: 2010-04-13 15:03:16

An Alaska woman used a little-known federal program to change her name and Social Security number, and then fradulently racked up over $600,000 in student loans with the new identity. Rachel Yould, who was born Rachel Hall, says that as a child and young woman she was sexually abused by her fath...

Supreme Court Justice Stevens To Step Down

Added: 2010-04-12 10:37:49

The oldest member of the United States Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens, has just announced that he will retire this summer, after 35 years in office. Stevens will leave his position at the end of the court's term, in late June or early July of this year. The timing of his retirement, he...

Christian Militia Members Arrested on Sedition, WMD Charges

Added: 2010-04-09 09:48:26

Nine people have been arrested on sedition and weapons charges for plotting to kill law enforcement officials, in what Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has referred to as an “insidious plan.” The group, which is based in Michigan and which makes no secret that it is a militia group, calls...

Nation's Governors Receive Letters From Extremist Group

Added: 2010-04-08 11:38:04

An extremist group has sent letters to the nation's governors, demanding that they resign and claiming that if they do not, the governors will be forcibly removed. Although both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security agree that the warnings come without credi...

Witnesses Testify To Alleged Abuse in California Nursing Home

Added: 2010-04-07 13:03:54

After a yearlong investigation, and over a year spent in custody by the alleged perpetrator, the trial has begun in the case of a Calabasas, California retirement home employee accused of beating residents. Cesar Ulloa, now 21, was just 19 at the time of the alleged abuses. A low-level employee,...

Georgia Man Filed Over 15 False FEMA Claims, Charged with Fraud

Added: 2010-04-06 10:45:23

A Georgia man used multiple identities, Social Security numbers and addresses to make a variety of fraudulent relief claims with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, say authorities. Desima James claimed to have survived three hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, a tornado in Indiana, and ...

Physician Records Subpoenaed in Death of Actor Corey Haim

Added: 2010-04-05 13:00:57

Over 20 doctors have been served subpoenas in connection with the recent death of actor Corey Haim, said a representative for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. Haim, an actor whose heyday was in the 1980s but who recently starred in an A&E reality show, had notoriously battled drug ab...

Partying Teens Cause $45K Worth of Damage to Massachusetts Home

Added: 2010-04-02 11:56:13

Having an unchaperoned party when their parents leave town for the weekend is almost a rite of passage for American teenagers—and most certainly a staple of Hollywood movies. Few parties, however, do the sort of damage that occurred at an out-of-control East Bridgewater, Massachussetts bash. T...

CA Supreme Court Rules on Hare Krishnas' Airport Solicitations

Added: 2010-04-01 10:05:26

The California Supreme Court has made it more difficult for Hare Krishnas and other religious groups to receive donations from travelers. Representatives of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, otherwise known as Hare Krishnas, have been a long-standing staple at Los Angeles Inte...

Legal•Info