Obit watch: March 11, 2014.
March 11th, 2014Yet another legal update.
March 8th, 2014Last June, I wrote about the Samuel Kellner case. Summarizing briefly, Mr. Kellner believed his son had been molested by a Hasidic cantor. He collected evidence and managed to get the cantor charged with and convicted of sexual abuse: however, the cantor’s conviction was later overturned, and Mr. Kellner was charged with extortion and bribery.
Obviously, I wasn’t there, and only know what I’ve read in the NYT. But this smells a lot like a failed attempt at revenge by the cantor’s supporters, possibly with help from the Brooklyn DA’s office.
And:
Discuss amongst yourselves.
March 7th, 2014Rock rock baby baby.
March 7th, 2014Not much going on, but I wanted to drop this in.
And this:
1a) Never throw shit at an armed man.
1b) Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.
Legal update.
March 6th, 2014I have written several times in the past about the case of Robert Middleton, who was set on fire by a neighbor boy when he was eight years old and died of cancer (possibly related to skin grafts) when he was 20.
Latest update: a judge has ruled that Donald Collins, who set Middleton on fire (and who was 13 at the time) can be tried as an adult for murdering Middleton.
It is worth pointing out here that Collins has not actually been charged yet, as Lambright notes. The DA has some hurdles to overcome, since Middleton is dead, and there were no other witnesses to the attack. And if Collins is convicted, his attorney can appeal both the conviction and the ruling allowing Collins to be tried as an adult.
Obit watch: March 5, 2014.
March 5th, 2014Noted French film director Alain Resnais. LAT. NYT.
Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland, perhaps most famous for his book How We Die
The Island of Mayor Moreau.
March 1st, 2014That would be Charles D. Moreau, the former mayor of the bankrupt city of Central Falls, RI.
Former mayor Moreau is out of prison now after serving one year. (Previously.)
What’s interesting about this is how his release went down. Mayor Moreau originally pled guilty to a charge of taking “illegal gratuities” from a “friend and political supporter” who was given a contract to board up abandoned buildings.
However, a federal appeals court apparently ruled sometime last year that “accepting gratuities” was not a crime. No, really, I’m not making this up:
So Moreau’s people moved to have his conviction thrown out, the prosecution said “Let’s make a deal”…and Moreau got the “accepting gratuities” conviction thrown out, and then pled gulity to a bribery charge.
Yep. You read that right. Why would he do that? Because the sentence on the bribery charge was basically “time served” (see below) so he got to walk away a more-or-less free man, and the prosecution got to chalk up a felony win.
I think the key takeaways here are: try the veal at Joe Marzilli’s Old Canteen, and remember to tip your government official.
You know what China needs?
March 1st, 2014Free Bubble-Up.
February 28th, 2014You may be wondering why this boxcar is so important to preservationists. After all, aren’t there plenty of boxcars in the world?
Yes. But this isn’t just any boxcar: this is Merle Haggard’s childhood home.
I wanted to drop some Haggard into this post, but I had a lot of trouble finding a performance of “Rainbow Stew” or “Fighting Side of Me” on YouTube that allowed embedding. So how about this: Merle Haggard in 1978 on “Austin City Limits”.
Banana republicans watch: February 27, 2014.
February 27th, 2014Somebody has been looking very closely at California police departments.
The criminal indictments appear to be a result of this series of events:
Razzak and Yick are also accused of falsifying incident reports.
Other high points:
- Razzak, Elias and Yick were sued by “two men and a woman” for violating their civil rights after a 2012 arrest. “The suit was settled earlier this year for an undisclosed sum.”
- “Furminger was one of three police officers named in a 2005 lawsuit in which a man said officers caught him urinating in the street, then forced him to kneel down and use his hair to mop up after himself. The city settled the suit for $83,000.”
- Furminger also received the Gold Medal for Valor as a result of a 1998 shooting.
- Former officer Vargas was fired by the SFPD “for putting in for overtime while testifying in court cases during regular hours”, and has a lawsuit pending against the department.
- “In 2002, Vargas was suspended for six months after being accused of gouging a man’s face with a broken crack pipe after he took him off a cable car for fare evasion. He admitted in 2005 to using excessive force, and the city paid the victim $60,000 to settle a lawsuit.”
- The San Francisco Public Defender has a YouTube channel. You can watch excerpts of their surveillance videos at the above link.
Leadership Secrets of Non-Fictional Characters (part 11 in a series)
February 26th, 2014Yes, this is a gossip column in a NYC paper. As much as I dislike Piers Morgan (and hope he spends time in prison for phone hacking), I would recommend taking the report itself with a grain of salt.
It does, however, give me an opportunity to make a point.
I don’t remember who originated this quote: I want to say it is a Dave Barry-ism, but I could very well be wrong.
Anyway: “If someone is nice to you, but rude to the waitress, they are not a nice person.”
You come at the King (City), you best not miss.
February 26th, 2014The LAT has a second-day story on the King City PD arrests, noted in this space yesterday.
There are several interesting new aspects to the story:
- The charge against Officer Jaime Andrade is “possession of an assault weapon and illegal storage of a firearm“. Specifically, “Criminal complaints accuse Andrade of possessing a semiautomatic Colt AR-15 and storing it in a manner in which ‘a child was likely to gain access to it.’” The possession charge is interesting; I’m no expert on the gun laws of California and other places outside of the United States, but I would have expected there to be an “only ones” exemption. I’m not sure how to feel about this; happy that a California cop got hoisted on his own petard? Or should I be upset over this in the same way that I would be if it was someone who wasn’t a cop?
- Sergeant Mark Allen Baker, who is apparently the sixth man from yesterday, is charged with making criminal threats.
- The charges appear, at least in part, to have spun out of an ongoing investigation. Allegedly, members of the King City PD were confiscating cars from residents and profiting from the impounds:
- More:
Miller Tow is owned by Brian Miller, who was also arrested. Brian Miller is not a King City PD officer; he is, however, acting chief Bruce Miller’s brother.
- This has “stupid” written all over it:
- King City is, according to the LAT, “more than 80% Latino”. Not explicitly stated in the LAT article, but my guess (and I think it is probably a good one): members of the King City PD thought they could prey on illegal immigrants and get away with it.
- Still no coverage that I see in the San Francisco area papers.