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NJ court rules against son in Plain estate dispute
Headline Topics |
2011/07/26 09:02
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A New Jersey court has ruled against the son of Belva Plain in a dispute over the late author's estate.
John Plain had claimed his mother, the bestselling author of more than 20 novels, and sisters had schemed to cut him out of her will.
Attorneys for Belva Plain's estate argued that her son had signed an agreement in the 1990s vowing not to contest her will.
Friday's decision in state Superior Court in Essex County dismissed John Plain's claim. Plain's lawyer said he was reviewing the decision.
Belva Plain began writing her novels after raising her children and becoming a grandmother. When she died in her sleep last fall at her home in New Jersey at age 95, more than 28 million copies of her books were in print. |
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Court denies motion to stop Loughner medication
Headline Court News |
2011/07/25 08:28
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A federal court Friday night denied an emergency motion by defense lawyers to keep prison officials in Missouri from forcibly medicating the Tucson shooting rampage suspect with a psychotropic drug.
In a one-page ruling, judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also denied a request by Jared Lee Loughner's attorneys for daily reports about his condition at a federal prison facility in Springfield, Mo.
The judges said their denial is without prejudice to the defense seeking appropriate relief in the district court. The 9th Circuit had previously scheduled an Aug. 30 hearing in San Francisco on an appeal by Loughner's lawyers over forced medication. It wasn't immediately clear if that hearing will still be held.
Calls to lead Loughner attorney Judy Clarke for comment Friday night weren't immediately returned.
Federal prosecutors said in a filing earlier Friday that Loughner should remain medicated because he may be a danger to himself and his mental and physical condition was rapidly deteriorating.
Loughner's attorneys questioned Thursday whether the forced medication violates an earlier order by the 9th Circuit that forbid prison officials from involuntarily medicating Loughner as the court mulls an appeal on his behalf. They also said their client has been on 24-hour suicide watch.
U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke wrote in his filing Friday that despite being under suicide watch, Loughner's unmedicated behavior is endangering him and that no measure short of medication will protect him from himself more than temporarily because they do not address the mental state which underlies his self-destructive actions. |
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Sparks Justice Court to be open four days a week
Industry News |
2011/07/25 08:28
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Sparks Justice Court is planning to go to four-day work weeks because of budget cuts.
Justice of the Peace Kevin Higgins says court staff will work from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and take only a half-hour lunch. Public access will be 8-5 on those days.
He says the court like other agencies is under a mandate to cuts wages and benefits by 7 percent, and the compact work week was the only option allowing the court to continue services without losing more staff.
He says judges will still be available for emergency matters, such as processing search warrants and protective orders.
The change needs confirmation from the Washoe County Commission, but is expected to take effect Aug. 15 and last the rest of the fiscal year. |
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Judge wants agency to investigate Meijer lawyer
Industry News |
2011/07/25 08:28
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A judge believes a lawyer committed perjury when he denied knowing anything about the role of Meijer Inc. in a 2007 recall election of township officials in northern Michigan's Grand Traverse County.
Judge Philip Rodgers said he has referred the matter involving Timothy Stoepker to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, a watchdog agency.
I believe it occurred, and I have an ethical responsibility to report it, Rodgers told the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
Stoepker, an attorney at the firm Dickinson Wright in Grand Rapids, represented Meijer during a dispute over a new store in Acme Township. Voters rejected the store in 2005, and township officials were targeted for recall in 2007.
Meijer, a major Midwestern retailer, later acknowledged illegally financing the recall effort and subsequently paid a $190,000 fine.
During a deposition in a civil lawsuit by a township official, Stoepker was asked what he knew about Meijer's role. I have no knowledge of that at all, he replied. |
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Paralegal accused of stealing from law firm
Headline Topics |
2011/07/20 09:24
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Authorities say a South Florida paralegal stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her Fort Lauderdale law firm.
Miami-Dade officials on Tuesday charged 53-year-old Brenda Wilcott-Kelly with more than 80 felonies, including grand theft and forging documents. Records show she's also took money from a lawyer who was on his deathbed.
Employees of Hermelee amp; Geffin were in court Tuesday as Judge Dennis Murphy set Wilcott-Kelly's bond at $116,000.
Defense attorney Morgan Cronin said his client is innocent.
According to the arrest affidavit, Wilcott-Kelly took $82,472 from the firm to pay off her husband's credit cards. She is also accused of stealing $31,050 from lawyer Steven A. Schultz, while he was in the hospital. Schultz leased space from the firm. |
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Fresno DA charges woman after deadly bus crash
Court Watch News |
2011/07/20 09:24
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A woman accused of providing alcohol to a teenage driver who caused a deadly Greyhound bus crash has been charged with a misdemeanor, officials said Tuesday.
Michelle Kay Cole, 22, was charged with purchasing an alcoholic beverage for a person under 21 resulting in death, Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth Egan said at a news conference.
Cole was cited Monday but not arrested, Egan said. She could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.
A California Highway Patrol report placed sole blame for the crash on 18-year-old Sylvia Garay. Investigators said she was drunk when her SUV hit a concrete barrier and overturned on Highway 99 on July 22, 2010.
The oncoming bus, carrying 31 passengers on a route from Los Angeles to Sacramento, struck the SUV, skidded into a concrete center divider, then tumbled down a 15-foot embankment and plowed into a eucalyptus tree shortly after 2 a.m. a few miles from downtown Fresno.
Garay, her two passengers and three people on the bus were killed. Authorities say Garay had a blood alcohol level of .11 when she died. The legal limit is .08.
The CHP report said the bus driver had no way to avoid the SUV, which was left without lights when it overturned. |
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Ex-CEO convicted in scam at auto-chemical company
Court Watch News |
2011/07/20 09:23
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A former corporate executive officer of a New York-based automotive-chemical company was convicted Tuesday in a multimillion-dollar investor fraud scheme that enabled him to buy expensive jewelry and take private jets.
A jury in Manhattan state Supreme Court found Cleveland lawyer James Margulies guilty of charges including grand larceny and scheme to defraud. He faces up to 25 years on the top two counts, which could run consecutively. Bail was set at $1.5 million.
Ira London, an attorney for Margulies, said he planned to file a very vigorous appeal.
The jury has spoken. I believe they have convicted an innocent man, he said.
While serving as the company's finance chief — and briefly as CEO — of Industrial Enterprises of America, Inc., from 2004 to 2008, Margulies illegally issued millions of shares of stock to friends and relatives, inflating the share price by making the company look more profitable than it was, prosecutors said.
A teachers' pension fund in Ohio and a church were among the victims of the scheme, prosecutors said.
Margulies personally reaped more than $7 million, spending it on lavish luxuries such as a $350,000 diamond ring for his wife from jeweler Harry Winston, prosecutors said.
He also paid more than a million dollars on the mortgage of his first home, bought a second home and spent $500,000 on a vacation club membership, prosecutors said.
Margulies was charged in the scheme in 2010 along with John D. Mazzuto, who pleaded guilty Jan. 14 to his role in issuing fraudulent shares of stock. |
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