Recent Posts
LawInfo - Legal Blog
Return To Blog Listing
Up to date legal information in regards to laws, lawsuits and finding lawyers or legal counsel.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'criminal law'
The Fair Sentencing Act of 2009… Equalizing Punishment for Crack and Powder Cocaine Offenses
By: LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ. New legislation has been introduced to Congress to equalize the sentencing for crack and cocaine drug offenses. Currently, there is a 100-1 sentencing disparitybetween convictions for offenses involing “crack...
Arrest Statistics by Crime
By: LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ. Even if you don’t watch the television program “COPS,” you might wonder the most common reasons people get arrested. Well, you’re in luck because the FBI reports on just that topic! Accord...
Medical Marijuana Update… Fewer Arrests in the Future
By: LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ. Is medical marijuana legal now? Well, not exactly. While the legality of marijuana use is still a bit tricky – illegal under federal law, but legal in certain states – the Obama administration has dec...
Hacker Indicted in Largest Credit/Debit Card Data Breach in U.S. History
By: LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ. According to the latest press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, suspects have been charged with data breach crimes in the largest alleged credit and debit card data breach ever in the United States. Ap...
Swiss examine US claim of bribery in tax matter
BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss prosecutors are examining allegations that a high-ranking Swiss tax official received a $45,000 bribe in exchange for providing sensitive information to an American who has now pleaded guilty to tax evasion in the U.S...
Lawyer: State offers deal in Jimmy Smith drug case
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — An attorney for former Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Jimmy Smith says the state has made an offer to his client on felony drug charges. Attorney Brian Coughlin told Circuit Court Judge Linda McCallum on Wednesday a decisio...
Records preservation sought in Pa. judge scandal
MICHAEL RUBINKAM,Associated Press Writer SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge has been asked to preserve records of a Pennsylvania judicial scandal that the state Supreme Court has said should be destroyed. The high court’s plan to delete tho...
Fla. hospital defends secretly deporting patient
LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ,AP Hispanic Affairs Writer STUART, Fla. (AP) — All sides agree on one thing in the strange case of a South Florida hospital that secretly repatriated a seriously brain injured patient back to Guatemala. During the early hours of a...
Feds: US man gave al-Qaida NYC subway information
DEVLIN BARRETT,Associated Press Writers TOM HAYS,Associated Press Writers NEW YORK (AP) — An American man charged with giving al-Qaida information on the New York transit system and attacking a U.S. military base in Afghanistan has been a secret wi...
NY Post: ESPN outed own reporter in nude video
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The New York Post on Thursday defended its publication of photos from an illicitly filmed Internet video showing ESPN reporter Erin Andrews naked in a hotel room by accusing the sports network of having outed her. ESPN on Wed...
ACORN sues to overturn Pa. voter-soliciting law
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a federal lawsuit in Pittsburgh seeking to strike down a Pennsylvania law used to prosecute former voter-registration work...
Ex-Fox News producer gets 10 years for child porn
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a former Fox News Channel producer to 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Aaron Bruns was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Prosecutor...
ESPN reporter secretly videotaped nude in hotel
PAT EATON-ROBB,Associated Press Writer BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was secretly videotaped in the nude while she was alone in a hotel room and the video was posted on the Internet, her attorney and the network said. The blurry,...
Ohio trial starts for pitcher blamed in fan injury
JAMES HANNAH,Associated Press Writer DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — A minor-league pitcher accused of throwing a baseball during a brawl that struck and injured a fan in the stands had been angry and decided to hurt someone, a prosecutor said Tuesday. In open...
Cops: Fla. slaying suspects didn’t expect cameras
BILL KACZOR,Associated Press Writer PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — The accomplice assigned to turn off surveillance cameras before an elaborate, deadly break-in at a sprawling Florida Panhandle home never did, but the seven people accused in the crime appa...
Del. man in NY court for cop’s 2006 killing
UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A Delaware man is in an upstate New York jail in connection with the slaying of a police officer during a $1 million jewelry store heist. A Utica judge entered a not guilty plea Wednesday on behalf of 31-year-old Robert Ward of S...
Merck and Schering-Plough settle heart drug claims
NEW YORK (AP) — Drugmakers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. say they will pay $5.4 million to settle civil claims that the companies covered up test results that cast doubt on the effectiveness of two blockbuster cholesterol drugs. The com...
Lawyer: Extraditing UK hacker would violate rights
LONDON (AP) — Prosecutors failed to consider the human rights argument against forcing an autistic British man accused of hacking into U.S. military computers to stand trial in the United States, a defense lawyer said Tuesday. Attorney Edward Fitzg...
Ohio executes trucker who went on killing spree
MEGHAN BARR,Associated Press Writer LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A former truck driver who went on a multistate killing spree has been executed in Ohio for the murder of a Cincinnati-area man who gave him a ride in 1991. Forty-five-year-old John Fautenb...
Stanford exec to appear in court
HOUSTON (AP) — The former top finance officer of indicted Texas financier R. Allen Stanford’s business empire is set to make his first court appearance after being charged with helping to swindle investors out of $7 billion. James M. Davis wa...
DC mom accused of killing 4 girls to go on trial
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington woman accused of killing her four daughters and living with their decomposing bodies for nearly seven months is set to go on trial Monday. The bodies were discovered in January 2008 when marshals arrived at Banita Jac...
Moving for a New Job?… Beware of “Moving Company Fraud”
By: LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ. These days, when layoffs are large and new jobs are scarce, you might be considering even moving away in order to take a new job in a different location. So you search for movers on the internet, find the best deal...
Former Mongols leader pleads guilty in fed case
GREG RISLING,Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former national president of the notorious Mongols motorcycle gang has pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy charge in a case that accused other members of murder, drug trafficking a...
Bomb squad searches house in Conn. after standoff
EVERTON BAILEY Jr.,Associated Press Writer SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) — A bomb squad searched the smoldering site of suburban Hartford home for signs of explosives on Wednesday, a day after a 13-hour standoff involving an advertising executive who p...
Credit Card Fraud 101
By: LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ. Credit card and debit card fraud is more widespread than in the past. In fact, the FTC reports that such fraud costs hundreds of millions of dollars each year in losses to cardholders as well as the credit card com...
Noriega asks US Supreme Court to block extradition
CURT ANDERSON,AP Legal Affairs Writer MIAMI (AP) — Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his extradition to France to face money-laundering charges. Attorneys for Noriega filed papers Tuesday seeking a S...
Charges dropped against 4 in SF cop killing
TERRY COLLINS,Associated Press Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Prosecutors dropped murder charges Monday against four of the seven men accused of gunning down a San Francisco police officer nearly four decades ago during a violent campaign against law ...
Woman seeks to decrease $1.92M fine for downloads
AMY FORLITI,Associated Press Writer MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A central Minnesota woman ordered to pay $1.92 million for illegally sharing copyright-protected music is asking a federal judge to reduce the damages she must pay or grant a new trial, while t...
School bullying, once a silent battle, now a crime
CHRISTINE ARMARIO,Associated Press Writer TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — In a Tampa middle school locker room, prosecutors say four flag football players held down a younger teammate and committed a horrifying assault: Raping him with a hockey stick and a broo...
Madoff Goes From Ponzi to Prison….
By: LINDSEY O’NEILL, ESQ. Bernie Madoff will be spending a lot of time in prison after being sentenced to a term of 150 years for his financial crimes. Sure, it is one of the strongest sentences for while collar crimes to date. But, that&...
