The LAW & LAWYERS Blog

Sometimes you come across stories that leave you asking this question above. Here are two such examples:

• Wisconsin Law Allows Parents To Pray Rather Than Call A Doctor; and

• Library Aide Fired For Reporting Child Pornography Suspect.

A Fort Collins, CO couple has a drug problem.

Specifically, their marijuana plants that were seized by the Fort Collins police were returned dead earlier this month, according to denverpost.com.

Here’s the background: James and Lisa Masters had more than 36 marijana plants at their home. Police confiscated them in a raid and sent the couple to jail, where they spent a little more than a day. Apparently, the couple’s plans to grow, use and sell marijuana for medical purposes were thwarted by one small problem: they were not on the state’s medical marijuana registry.

The Masters have claimed that they were unable to afford a license to use and sell the pot before the police raid, but since their stint behind bars have secured a license with help from friends. Since their return home, the police have given the plants back. But, of course, they’re no longer living.

The controversy here comes over the issue of whether this is a medical marijuana case or not. If it is, the police should not have harmed the pot plants in any way, and could be found at fault in court. If it’s not considered a medical marijuana case–which is possible, since the couple didn’t join the registry until after their arrest–the police will likely be found to have no liability.

A judge has already dismissed the original charges against the Masters, ruling that the police search of their home and seizure of the pot plants were illegal. The issue of the dead pot, though, remains to be solved.

Well, this question is a little bit tricky because the kicker was a martial arts instructor, and the kickee was a student who had accepted a challenge from the instructor.

Susan Bateman, 47, of Hampton, Virginia is accused of kicking one of her 11-year-old martial arts students in the abdomen more than 200 times, causing the child internal injuries and possibly a broken rib. Bateman was arrested and charged with one count of felony child endangerment.

Police say that on November 7, Bateman issued a challenge to her students to see which one of them could endure the most kicks to the abdomen. The students got into the push-up position and Bateman kicked until they either let their knees touch the floor or gave up and told her to stop.

The 11-year-old boy and one other student in the class reportedly were kicked by Bateman over 200 times. The injured child did not tell his parents about the incident until he needed medical attention.

So was Bateman abusing her students, or is this a routine exercise in martial arts instruction? Is she a felon child kicker or simply someone who used extremely poor judgment when dealing with her students?

That question will, almost certainly, be up to a jury to decide.

On Wednesday, OJ Simpson appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom to find out whether he would have to stand trial for allegedly robbing a sports memorabilia dealer at gunpoint.

After a four day preliminary hearing and hearing testimony from three of Simpson’s co-defendants, Justice of the Peace Joseph Bonaventure deliberated for about four hours. Bonaventure decided that Simpson and two of his accomplices, the ones who have not accepted plea deals, will stand trial on twelve criminal charges including robbery, conspiracy, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and burglary.

Prosecutors in the trial have not made any comments about the case, but there are many questions that for now, go unanswered. We will all have to wait to see if a jury in this trial will be able to forget the “trial of the century” 12 years ago when Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

There is also the matter of shady witnesses in the case. One of Simpson’s co-defendants admitted that his testimony could have been bought for the right price and he would have changed his story to testify for Simpson. He and other witnesses were portrayed as pimps, liars and con-artists by the defense lawyers.

Some legal experts following the trial have said that a plea deal for Simpson might not be out of the question. However, if no deal comes through for Simpson he will stand trial for these serious charges against him.

After a long legal battle and two years in jail, Genarlow Wilson and his family finally celebrated his freedom this weekend.

Wilson had been convicted of felony aggravated child molestation after he was videotaped at a 2003 New Year’s Eve party having sex with a 15 year old girl.  The sex has been characterized as consensual oral sex, and Wilson was 17 years old at the time.

Since Wilson’s conviction, similar crimes involving consensual sex between teenagers have be re-categorized as misdemeanor offenses.  However, at the time of Wilson’s conviction a ten year sentence was mandatory.

On Friday, the Georgia Supreme Court in a tight 4-3 decision, decided that a 10 year sentence for Wilson amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.”    He was released from prison within hours following their decision.  Prosecutors do not plan to appeal the decision.

So now Wilson is 21 years old and is a free man.  He says that he now plans to go to college and pursue a degree in sociology or business.

In Multnomah County, Oregon have recently come up with a plan to get more defendants to court, and on time.  They have implemented a new automated telephone system that gives defendants wake up calls to remind them that they are due in court.

Since the phone system started calling up a sampling of criminal defendants, the amount people accused of crimes who skip their court dates has dropped from 29 percent to 16 percent.

The pilot run of the system shows results that are so promising that within the next few months, the automated system will dial up all of the approximate 72,000 people charged with crimes in the county each year.

Over the weekend, Kid Rock took some time out after a performance in Atlanta to do some fine dining.  The Kid, also known as Robert Ritchie, was reportedly at a Waffle House restaurant in DeKalb County, Georgia in the early morning hours on Sunday when he got into some kind of brawl and was later arrested.

Apparently a customer at the Waffle House recognized a woman in Kid Rock’s entourage, and there was reportedly some exchange between the woman and the man who recognized her.  Tempers flared and the exchange became an argument and the argument then became a brawl in the parking lot of the restaurant.  Someone called the police, of course, and Kid Rock’s tour bus was pulled over a little while later.

Robert Ritchie and five other people were reportedly taken into custody and charged with misdemeanor simple battery.  The Waffle House customer at the center of the scuffle, Harlen Akins, was also arrested and charged with one felony count of second degree criminal damage to property because he allegedly smashed a window at the Waffle House restaurant.

Kid Rock posted bond and left the DeKalb County jail at around 5 pm on Sunday and signed autographs for fans on the way out to his tour bus.

The mystery of who placed thousands of toothpicks on a high school football field before a high school football game has been solved.

Thousands of toothpicks were stuck into the ground on the playing field causing the game to be relocated last week and no one was sure who did it or why.

Now state police in Michigan say that five students are responsible for planting the 5,000 toothpicks on the Tawas Area High School field.

While the football players were warming up for the game last week they noticed the toothpicks sticking up from the turf.  Officials tried using a machine to roll over the field and push them down, but when that didn’t work the game had to be relocated to a safe field 37 miles away.

Two of OJ Simpson’s co-defendants in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas last month may give testimony at trial that could damage any credibility that Simpson has left.

Simpson and five other men were arrested and charged with 10 felony counts of armed robbery, kidnapping, assault, burglary and conspiracy in connection with the incident in which the memorabilia dealers say that $80,000 worth of sports memorabilia were stolen. Simpson also faces an additional charge of coercion.

Although two of the men will reportedly testify about guns involved in the alleged robbery, OJ Simpson maintains that there were no guns involved in the incident.

Police interviewed one of the defendants, Walter Alexander, and according to the 45-page transcript, Simpson told Alexander to bring firearms to the hotel to meet with the memorabilia dealers. He alleges that Simpson wanted the victims to know that he meant business. Alexander says that he had a .22-caliber handgun tucked into his waistband during the alleged robbery and that the gun was given to him by another defendant, Michael McClinton. He says that McClinton carried a larger firearm into the hotel room. He also added that Simpson and the other defendants seemed to not want to go into the hotel room until he and McClinton arrived with the guns.

Alexander will reportedly testify against Simpson at trial and plead guilty to felony conspiracy to commit robbery, a charge that could land him in prison for up to six years.

Another one of the men, Charles Cashmore, is reportedly planning to plead guilty to felony accessory to robbery, which could land him behind bars for up to five years. Cashmore reportedly has said that one man carried a gun into the hotel room, tucked into his waistband, and another man, Michael McClinton went in with a larger firearm and brandished it at the victims, and acted as if he was a police officer.

Alexander an Cashmore will appear in court on October 23, and their lawyers say that they both will ask the court for probation.

Simpson maintains that no firearms were present at the alleged robbery. He is free on $125,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on November 8 for a preliminary hearing.

Late last week, sports memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley reported to police that he had been the victim of a robbery in which the thieves took all of the sports memorabilia items that he had in his Las Vegas hotel room.  The robbery, he said, was not by a random person interested in his sports memorabilia, but by OJ Simpson and a few of his heavies.

OJ Simpson was initially questioned by police and characterized the incident as a private sting operation that he had organized in order to recover some items that he says belong to him.  The Juice denied Beardsley’s claims that his thugs had guns or roughed up anyone during the incident.

The media reports about the case got a little wobbly yesterday when Alfred Beardsley seemed to back off his story a bit and announced that he was on OJ’s side.  Later, Beardsley said that his comments pertained to events prior to the robbery and that he does fully intend to press charges and testify against Simpson.  Now, he is reportedly saying that he is sad that OJ is in jail, whatever that means.  I’m taking his comments to the media with a grain of salt now.

One of Simpson’s alleged accomplices in the robbery was arrested last night and the DA has reportedly told his attorney that he has one week in which to decide if he would like to work out a plea deal.  Sources close to the case say that if the cops have the evidence, this guy will likely turn on Simpson and agree to testify against him.

Today Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas and has been reportedly charged with 2 counts of assault with a deadly weapon, 2 counts of  robbery with a deadly weapon, one count of burglary with the use of a deadly weapon and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery with a deadly weapon. 

Word out of Las Vegas tonight is that the judge has denied bail for Simpson.