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Court reverses verdict in Calif. baby-selling case
Law Firm Legal News |
2013/06/20 15:24
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A midlevel California appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Salinas man who allegedly tried to sell his 8-month-old baby in a Walmart parking lot.
The state's 6th District Court of Appeal ruled Friday that the judge who originally heard the case gave incomplete instructions to the jury that ultimately convicted 41-year-old Patrick Fousek of child endangerment, The Monterey Herald reports.
Both Fousek and his girlfriend, Samantha Tomasini, were arrested two years ago when two women reported that Fousek had approached them and asked if they wanted to buy his infant daughter for $25. Fousek's lawyers argued during his 2011 trial that the offer had not been serious, but the appeals court said Monterey County prosecutors had presented enough evidence to support a guilty verdict.
But the court, in its unpublished opinion, said Superior Court Judge Pamela Butler should have been told they needed to agree unanimously on the specific act or acts on which they based their verdict. In Fousek's case, that could have been the proposed sale of the baby, the squalid home in which she was being raised, or the fact that Tomasini allegedly breastfed the little girl while high on methamphetamine. |
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Court Upholds Rifle Sales Reporting Requirement
Law Firm Legal News |
2013/06/02 11:09
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A federal appeals court panel has unanimously upheld an Obama administration requirement that dealers in southwestern border states report when customers buy multiple high-powered rifles.
The firearms industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and two Arizona gun sellers argued that the administration overstepped its legal authority in the 2011 regulation, which applies to gun sellers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
But the three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that the requirement was unambiguously authorized under the Gun Control Act of 1968.
The challengers argued that the requirement unlawfully creates a national firearms registry, but the court said because it applies to a small percentage of gun dealers, it doesn't come close to creating one. |
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Court stays out of Planned Parenthood funding case
Law Firm Legal News |
2013/05/27 11:08
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Indiana will likely stop defending a law that stripped Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood after the Supreme Court declined to hear the case Tuesday, an attorney who represents the nation's largest abortion provider said.
Indiana is among more than a dozen states that have enacted or considered laws to prevent taxpayers' money from funding organizations that provide abortion. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 23 that the law targeting Planned Parenthood went too far because it denied women the right to choose their own medical providers.
I assume at this point the state will give up in its claim that that portion of the statue is valid under the Social Security Act, said Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. The case now returns to U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, who granted the initial preliminary injunction to temporarily block the law, precipitating the state's appeals.
Neither the state senator who sponsored the bill or the Family and Social Services Administration - the agency tasked with enforcing the law - had immediate comment.
My office always contended this is ultimately a dispute between the state and federal government, not between a private medical provider and the state, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said in a statement. Zoeller's office handled the state's appeal. |
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Ex-South Tahoe cop guilty of witness tampering
Law Firm Legal News |
2013/05/22 11:52
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A former South Lake Tahoe police officer faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of witness tampering and obstruction.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner said that 44-year-old John Poland entered his plea Wednesday after admitting to interfering with a federal investigation of a gang member at Lake Tahoe.
A grand jury indictment said he persuaded the gang member's girlfriend to conceal and destroy evidence in June 2011. A few months later, Wagner says Poland tampered with that witness in an investigation into his own conduct as well as that of the gang member. |
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Italy court upholds Berlusconi tax fraud verdict
Law Firm Legal News |
2013/05/14 00:11
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Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence were upheld on the first appeal Wednesday in a case that could see him barred from public office for five years.
In Italy, defendants are legally considered innocent until all appeals are exhausted, and Berlusconi's lawyers are expected to appeal the case to the nation's highest Court of Cassation once the reasoning for the decision is published.
Still, the ruling, which comes just days before prosecutors wrap up closing arguments in his sensational sex-for-hire trial, raises the question of whether Berlusconi's days as a political force are numbered.
His center-right forces are allied with the Democratic Party in a grand coalition, and although Berlusconi holds no governmental posts he remains influential. It was his decision to head the center-right coalition, after initially saying he would move aside for younger leaders, that gave a boost to his forces in February's election campaign, finishing a close second to the center-left. |
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