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District judge given probation in gun incident
Lawyer World News |
2008/03/05 14:19
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| pA former district judge pleaded no contest yesterday to carrying a concealed firearm without a license following an altercation with his father-in-law./ppSenior District Judge Donald H. Presutti, 60, of Kilbuck, was given nine months' probation for the misdemeanor violation. Allegheny County Judge Randal B. Todd ordered him to complete 120 hours of community service and anger management classes. The judge also prohibited him from contact with his father-in-law./ppRaymond Billotte, district court administrator for Common Pleas Court, said Mr. Presutti is not currently on call for arraignment judges' roster. He said President Judge Joseph James would be seeking counsel from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts as to how to proceed with Mr. Presutti's status since his plea./ppThe former judge admitted to police he had a 9 mm pistol tucked in his suit pocket when he was arrested Nov. 29, 2006, at West View Auto Body on Perry Highway./ppHe told officials he had the gun loaded, cocked and concealed because he was afraid of his father-in-law, Earl Quillen, whom he said had swung at him and grabbed him by the neck earlier at the auto body shop./p |
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Judge at Rezko Trial Keeps Jurors Secret
Attorney Legal Opinions |
2008/03/05 14:16
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| The judge in the corruption trial of a prolific fundraiser for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-uh-vich) says she's keeping the identities of jurors secret.pTwelve jurors and six alternates are to hear opening statements Thursday in Antoin Tony Rezko's trial./ppU.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve says she's not releasing the jurors' names or numbers. She has left the door open to releasing some information later./ppThe 52-year-old Rezko is accused of shaking down companies hoping to invest teachers' pension money or build hospital expansions. He denies wrongdoing./ppRezko has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Blagojevich and sizable amounts for Obama. Neither politician has been charged with anything./p |
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US Judge Awards $37M in Peru Massacre
Attorney Legal Opinions |
2008/03/05 13:43
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| A federal judge has ordered a former Peruvian army officer to pay $37 million for his role in a 1985 massacre in Peru in which 69 civilians were slain, including elderly people and infants.pU.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan ruled Tuesday in a lawsuit filed against former Maj. Telmo Hurtado by two women — Ochoa Lizarbe and Pulido Baldeon — who were 12 at the time and survived the attack./ppJordan had previously found in the lawsuit that Hurtado was had committed torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity./ppHurtado, 46, is in federal custody in Miami while fighting deportation to Peru, with a hearing set for March 26. He did not contest the lawsuit, did not have a lawyer and refused to testify last month when he was brought to court for a hearing on damages./ppJordan said the money can be awarded under a 1991 U.S. law allowing torture victims to collect damages in this country for violations if a foreign government refuses to do so. Neither woman has received any compensation from Peru's government./p |
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Touro chief says law school not for sale
Law Firm Legal News |
2008/03/05 12:50
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| pDiscussions about the sale of the Touro Law Center to Stony Brook University never made it past the preliminary stage, Stony Brook president Shirley Strum Kenny said yesterday./ppWe had very preliminary talks, Kenny said. We were certainly not at the point of negotiating./ppBernard Lander, founder and president of Touro College, whose main campus is in Manhattan, said yesterday he would never sell the law school. The college operates the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Central Islip./ppI never met with anybody or spoke to anybody at the state university, Lander said in an interview. I had one meeting with Sen. [Kenneth] LaValle. Period. I never negotiated with anybody. Lander said that when Touro law school dean Lawrence Raful asked him for his opinion and that of the school's board, I said the law school charter is never for sale. Period./ppTalk of a possible sale surfaced in early February in an effort to make Stony Brook the second university after the University of Buffalo in the State University of New York system to have a law school./ppKenny confirmed she and Lander had never met to discuss the law school. There were conversations with people in the law school, she said, but they were very preliminary discussions. We never got into any negotiations./ppKenny said those discussions did serve a purpose: They revived the idea of adding a law school at Stony Brook./ppDr. Kenny and I have agreed to move forward and look at and explore the possibility of establishing our own law school at Stony Brook, said LaValle (R- Port Jefferson)./ppIt's not a new concept, Kenny said, noting that university officials first considered the addition of a law school in the 1970s and then again in the 1980s. But now people feel it's the last piece of putting together a major research university. ... It's something we will be considering very seriously./ppThough no agenda has been put in place, Kenny said a committee will be formed to study the feasibility of building a law school. I think there is a lot of interest now in the possibility of developing a law school at Stony Brook. Now, nothing has happened on that score./p |
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Supreme Court to Release Same-Day Tapes
Lawyer World News |
2008/03/05 12:29
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| pThe Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will take the special step of releasing audiotapes of oral arguments on the same day that it hears a case challenging the District's gun law. /ppEvery argument before the justices is recorded, but the tapes normally are not available until well after the court's term has ended. But beginning in 2000, with the arguments in Bush v. Gore, the court has released same-day audiotapes in high-profile cases when there is substantial media interest. /ppBecause the court is not open to cameras, the audiotapes are the only recordings of the proceedings. /ppThe case of District of Columbia v. Heller, to be heard March 18, will be the court's first consideration of the meaning of the Second Amendment in nearly 70 years. Last year, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2 to 1 that the District's ban on private handgun possession violated the amendment. /ppThe Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether the amendment protects an individual's right to own a firearm, and if so, what restrictions government may place on that right. It is one of the most prominent cases of the court's term. More than 60 organizations and individuals have filed amicus briefs to support the city or those challenging what is acknowledged as the nation's strictest gun control law. /ppThis term, the court released same-day audiotapes in two other important cases, one involving the rights of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison and the other involving the constitutionality of lethal injections. /ppThe arguments in the gun control case are scheduled for 10 a.m. March 18. Each side will receive 30 minutes to present its case, and U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement has been granted 15 minutes for the federal government's views. The tapes will be released soon after the proceedings. /ppClement's brief agrees with the law's challengers that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to bear arms, but it argues that the appeals court too broadly decided the case against the District. It recommends that the case be returned to lower courts. /p |
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