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Blog and Media Roundup - Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009; News Roundup
Topic Started: Feb 10 2009, 05:40 AM (875 Views)
Quasimodo


Quote:
 
"I believe these blogs are getting out of control," he said.


Too much free speech?

People know what blogs are; they are similar to speech in a public square (or on a school playground). People passing by may hear gossip, rumor, innuendo, or factual truth; and may or may not choose to repeat these.

People know how to judge the worth of what is repeated on the NET.

If there are any strictures put in place, everyone will clam up. Period. Because everyone will be suing everyone else.

Result? MONITORED free speech--circa East Germany 1960--which is no free speech at all.



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http://www.newsobserver.com/content/media/2009/2/9/08dhc8.pdf
Ex-public defender is disbarred
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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1400511.html
Former Durham band teacher makes court appearance
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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/4508646/
Durham man wanted on child molestation, abuse charges
Posted: Today at 12:26 p.m.
Updated: Today at 12:39 p.m.

Durham, N.C. — Durham police are trying to locate Arturo Duran Rodriguez, 31, who is wanted on six felony child molestation and child abuse charges.

Rodriguez, whose last known address was 1315 Morreene Road in Durham, might be driving a 1996 purple Nissan truck with North Carolina registration SPV-2688.

He might be employed as a construction worker, police said.

Anyone with information on Rodriguez’s whereabouts is asked to call Investigator T.M. Ochman at 919-560-4440 ext. 289 or Crime Stoppers at 919-683-1200.

Crime Stoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.
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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/4508193/
Woman charged with robbing 89-year-old man
Posted: Today at 11:34 a.m.
Updated: Today at 11:39 a.m.

Aberdeen, N.C. — Moore County authorities charged a woman Monday with stealing from an 89-year-old Aberdeen man.

Hannah Lee Howell, 41, was charged with first-degree burglary, attempted common law robbery and assault on the handicapped. She was being held Tuesday in the Moore County Jail under a $40,000 secured bond.

An Aberdeen woman told deputies last week that she saw two women inside her uncle's home and found them searching through his pockets when she entered the home.

Authorities haven't identified the second woman seen in the home.

Howell also had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court on various traffic offenses, authorities said.
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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/4505448/
Text-messaging ban for NC drivers sought in House
Posted: Today at 4:02 a.m.
Updated: Today at 12:26 p.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Several House lawmakers say banning drivers from text messaging would create safer roads in North Carolina even though enforcement might be difficult.

Rep. Garland Pierce of Scotland County said Tuesday a bill he's filed would serve as a deterrent by making clear that texting is a distraction and can result in accidents. Pierce and others spoke at a Legislative Building news conference.

The bill would make texting punishable by up to a $100 fine and court costs. No driver's license points or insurance penalties would be issued. Emergency personnel would be exempt from the ban.

Pierce said it may be difficult to catch violators but said the bill would help educate the public.

The state already makes it illegal for drivers under age 18 to use a cell phone.

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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4505444/
GOP state legislators propose probation fixes
Posted: Today at 4:02 a.m.
Updated: 1 minute ago

RALEIGH, N.C. — Two Republican state lawmakers Tuesday announced a plan that they say can help fix the state's troubled probation system.

Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, filed Senate Bill 123, which would allow any law enforcement officer to perform warrantless searches on probationers. It would also require probationers to submit to random drug tests.

"This is a way to address our growing crime problem, our growing criminal problem," Berger said.

Of the 117,779 people on probation or parole in the state, 60 percent have court-ordered warrantless searches and 68 percent have court-ordered drug testing, according to the North Carolina Department of Correction.

Approximately 14,000 are unaccounted for, including 942 in Wake County and 832 in Durham County.

That's why Berger and Stam say they also sent a letter to Gov. Bev Perdue asking that the state publish on the Internet a list of all probation absconders and their last known addresses.

snip...
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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/4511538/
Man shot in Durham
Posted: Today at 4:30 p.m.

Durham, N.C. — A man shot in a drive-by shooting was in surgery Tuesday afternoon for his wounds, Durham police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said.

The injured man's identity was not released.

Michael said the shooting happened near the intersection of Cook Road and Tripoli Drive just before 3 p.m. She said a small, silver four-door car, believed to have been carrying the shooter, fled the scene.
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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/4510915/
Suspect indicted in Christmas Eve shooting
Posted: Today at 3:32 p.m.

Raleigh, N.C. — A Wake County grand jury indicted Eric Eugene Hinton, 26, Monday on charges of involuntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm by felon.

Hinton's son, Pharell Hinton, 3, was found dead of a gunshot wound on Christmas Eve at 1123 Ujamaa Drive.

According to an arrest warrant, Raleigh police investigators found evidence at the scene to indicate that the gun used in the shooting belonged to Hinton. They believe the child somehow got access to the gun and it discharged, killing him.

Hinton has a criminal record, with arrests for larceny, trespass, possession of stolen goods and drug use and possession. He served six months in jail in 2006.
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http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090210/NEWS/90210025/-1/frontpagetabmodule-1V

February 10, 2009

Scruggs sentenced in Miss. mail fraud

Jerry Mitchell
jmitchell@clarionledger.com

Once famed multimillionaire trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs pleaded guilty today to a mail fraud scheme and was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to seven years in prison.

Scruggs is now serving five years for his part in a 2007 scheme that led to the payment of a $40,000 bribe to a Lafayette County judge hearing a legal fees dispute regarding Hurricane Katrina litigation. After that plea, a default judgment was entered against Scruggs.

He pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson in Aberdeen.

Scruggs' new seven-year sentence runs concurrent to his five-year sentence, meaning he will serve only two additional years — for a total of seven. He gets no time for the approximately six months he's already served.

The charges involve a previous legal-fees dispute, this one heard by Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter, who has been suspended since March 2008 while the state Commission on Judicial Performance investigates allegations against him.

Scruggs is expected to be sentenced this afternoon. His plea bargain calls for a concurrent seven-year sentence.

According to prosecutors, Scruggs was involved in a scheme “to deprive citizens of the state of Mississippi of the honest services of a circuit judge.”

DeLaughter,who was not mentioned by name in court today, could be charged in the case. He has maintained his innocence from the start, saying he followed the law in ruling mostly in Scruggs’ favor.

Scruggs’ one-time lawyer, Joey Langston of Booneville, already has pleaded guilty in the Hinds County case and has been sentenced to three years in prison.

If DeLaughter is charged, he could face possible testimony from Scruggs, Langston and others, including his former boss, one-time District Attorney Ed Peters, who is cooperating with authorities.

In 1994, two former law partners, Alwyn Luckey and Bob Wilson, sued Scruggs, saying he never paid them their share from asbestos and tobacco litigation. The case bounced from court to court until 2005 when U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerry Davis arbitrated the case involving Luckey, concluding that Scruggs owed Luckey $17 million.

In January 2006, special master Bobby Sneed, appointed by the Hinds County Circuit Court to evaluate the evidence in Wilson’s lawsuit, made recommendations that largely sided with Wilson, leading his lawyers to seek $15 million in legal fees.

Scruggs made Langston lead counsel, assisted by then-attorney Timothy Balducci. A few months later, DeLaughter ruled in Scruggs’ favor, saying Scruggs owed nothing more than the $1.5 million he’d made in belated payments.

In a hearing last year, Balducci testified Scruggs called his brother-in-law, then-U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, to swing consideration for a federal judgeship so DeLaughter would rule in Scruggs’ favor.

Rather than pay DeLaughter money, Balducci said the Scruggs camp promised to have Scruggs contact Lott so DeLaughter would be considered for the judgeship. Lott ended up successfully recommending someone else for the judgeship.

Lott has not been charged with any wrongdoing. His representatives have called his contact with DeLaughter nothing more than a “courtesy call.”

Oxford lawyer Grady Tollison, who led the Katrina legal fees litigation against Scruggs, said Scruggs’ guilty plea is going to have a definite effect on Wilson’s litigation.

He noted that Langston’s guilty plea bolsters Wilson’s claim that the case should be reopened and DeLaughter’s rulings tossed. Wilson is seeking additional damages through a federal lawsuit filed in Oxford.

Carl Tobias, a professor for the University of Richmond School of Law, said it is unusual to have a defendant return from prison to plead guilty in a related case.

“Usually if they’re pretty close in time and they’re related, you’d try to do them together and have a package deal,” he said.

Last year, prosecutors reportedly offered Scruggs a deal in which he could plead guilty in both cases, and, in exchange, prosecutors would recommend he serve no more than seven years in prison. But Scruggs reportedly balked at the offer.

Although the Hinds County lawsuit ended with a settlement, bribery allegations could be used to try and reopen the case, Tobias said. “It’s not clear how a judge would resolve it.”
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http://www.johnincarolina.com/

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Chronicle Reports Gorelick’s Hiring: A Look Back

Just over a year ago– Feb. 7, 2008 to be exact - The Chronicle (TC) ran a story headlined: “University hires lawyer for civil suit.” Here’s that TC in full with my comments following below the star line.

TC began - - -

Duke has hired former U.S. deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick to assist in the defense against the federal civil rights lawsuit filed by three unindicted members of the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team, University officials confirmed Wednesday.

"At different times, we hire different attorneys depending on what skills we are looking for," said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. "Jamie Gorelick is one of the most respected lawyers in this country and having her on our team of lawyers working on this matter will be very helpful."

Professor of Law Thomas Metzloff said Gorelick will be able to help by sorting through the 379-page-long complaint and thinking through the "creative" civil rights theories it employs.

A partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Washington, D.C., Gorelick served as deputy attorney general from 1994 to 1997 and as vice chair of Fannie Mae from 1997 to 2003 and was also a member of the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the events leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"It is good to have that level of expertise to make sure you have a consistent and coordinated level of response," Metzloff said.

He added that the plaintiffs-senior Ryan McFadyen, Matt Wilson, Trinity '06, and former Duke student Breck Archer-have submitted "a lot of unusual claims under federal rights laws."

The lengthy suit alleges a "consortium" of more than 30 defendants, including President Richard Brodhead and other top administrators, Duke University Health System, former Durham district attorney Mike Nifong and the director of the laboratory that examined the DNA among others conspired against Duke students in prolonging the now-discredited Duke lacrosse rape case.

"'Consortium' is not a legal term to me," Metzloff said. "The average complaint is less than 20 to 30 pages, but it depends on the context of the complaint. I read thousands of complaints, and this one is significantly longer than any I have heard of."

McFadyen, Wilson and Archer claim they were "railroaded as either principals or accomplices" in relation to exotic dancer Crystal Mangum's rape claims in the March 2006 case against three lacrosse players.

Duke administration officials have said the lawsuit was misdirected toward the University-a sentiment Metzloff echoed.

"I'd like this whole thing to go away," he said.

*******************************************

Comments:

My reactions reading the story today are the same as they were last Feb. 7: It’s very one-sided and fails to report what Gorelick’s hiring really meant.

I’ve no problem with TC’s repeated quoting of Professor Metzloff, beginning with his sneering reference to the complaint's "’creative’" civil rights theories[.]”

But why is Metzloff, who in TC’s story just echoes what we’d already heard from the Allen Building, the only attorney TC quotes?

Any candid attorney could’ve told TC what it should have told its readers: Duke’s hiring Gorelick meant Duke - - contrary to its dismissive public comments about the complaint - - realized it was in for a very tough battle defending itself against the complaint’s allegations.

But the story makes no mention of TC trying to get a reaction from anyone other than Metzloff and VP Burness.

I can understand TC placing early in the story Duke’s public explanation for hiring Gorelick:

"At different times, we hire different attorneys depending on what skills we are looking for," said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. "Jamie Gorelick is one of the most respected lawyers in this country and having her on our team of lawyers working on this matter will be very helpful."

But TC failed its readers by not questioning Burness once he’d provided his bromide explanation.

The two most obvious questions TC should have asked Burness were: “Doesn’t hiring Gorelick mean Duke takes Eckstrand’s complaint very seriously?” and “Gorelick’s had very little, if any, experience litigating in the complex areas the Ekstrand suit involves. So why was she selected?”

I can't find anything in TC's story the Allen Building could complain about. On the other hand, TC readers were shorted.
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~J~ is in Wonderland
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~J~ is in Wonderland
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4512231/

NCSU students want to pack heat on campus

Some North Carolina State University students are wearing empty gun holsters on campus this week to protest a state law prohibiting them from carrying concealed weapons on campus.

"Everyone should be given a right to defend themselves no matter where they are," said Daryl Johnson, a member of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a national group that gained attention in the wake of the massacre of 32 students on the Virginia Tech campus in April 2007.

"We are just trying to show that we are law-abiding citizens. We carry off campus, or we support carrying off campus," Johnson said.

Nearly 128,000 concealed carry permits have been issued in North Carolina since 1995, including 8,300 in Wake County, according to the State Bureau of Investigation.

About 20 members of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus are taking part in the empty holster protest this week, he said. Similar protests are expected on other college campuses in North and South Carolina and Virginia, he said.

Chief Tom Younce of the N.C. State campus police said he disagrees with the effort to pack heat on campus, but he said his officers won't interfere with the protest.

"We're a very close-knit organization, the university is. You've got about 8,000 to 9,000 students living close on campus – in dorm rooms – (and) I don't think it's a good idea (to allow concealed weapons)," Younce said.

Any changes to the rules would have to come from state lawmakers.

"I believe that the more people you see with a weapon, the more acceptable it's going to be. It's not going to have that stigma that, 'Oh my gosh, it's bad,'" Johnson said.


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