Category Archives: Law: Criminal Law

How Can We Tolerate This?

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread.”
— Anatole France

Well, not in Miami, baby.

In Miami, the law in its majestic stupidity and evil requires three poor people to sleep under a bridge.

Yes. Really.

The Miami New Times has the story:

Swept Under the Bridge — It's 5:45 a.m. and still completely dark when a car pulls off NW Twelfth Avenue and makes its way silently through the complex of streets just south of the county criminal court. The car turns into the jury parking lot, otherwise completely empty. It creeps past the massive concrete pillars under the State Road 836 bridge, makes an abrupt turn, and stops. The door opens and a stocky, middle-aged man exits. He walks over to a pile of cardboard, bends down, picks up a flap, and peeps. Then he does the same to a pile of rags. Finally he re-enters his car and leaves. After a minute, the rags and cardboard begin to stir — three men stand up and begin packing their things.

The men are convicted sex offenders. The car, which visits every morning before dawn, belongs to Benito Casal, a state Department of Corrections (DOC) probation officer who enforces their 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew. If they aren't under the bridge between those hours, he will have them hunted down and arrested.

…

Court files, DOC documents, and probation case notes reveal that state authorities are not only aware the three sleep at the location just north of the Miami River — they sent them there. Unable or unwilling to find housing for the offenders as they left prison, probation officers Benito Casal, Kimilyn Cohen, and Robert Leiry began sending them to the bridge more than six months ago. Several circuit court judges may have known of the placement. Miami-Dade Police are aware of their location as well. Two of them list their address in the county's sex crimes bureau database as NW Twelfth Avenue and Twelfth Street, and the third is incorrectly registered as living at his victim's address.

…

The idea to stash offenders under the bridge seems to have originated within a county probation office; very possibly it was Casal himself who started the practice. On June 12, 2006, Casal's notes indicate that he notified the court that “if the subject is released without a residence, I will have to place him under the bridge….” Sanchez would be sharing the location, the probation officer added, “with another sex offender that is residing there.” The other offender is not identified, and it's unclear whether there were others before him.

On August 17, 2006, Casal ordered Sanchez under the bridge. But he wasn't acting alone. According to his notes, he informed a probation officer named Ilzee Rabel, who works in Circuit Court Judge Diane Ward's division, of his decision. Whether Ward herself was ever told is unclear. She didn't return several phone calls or an e-mail seeking comment. But one thing is clear: By this past February 9 Casal had visited the site near the child abuse center at least 118 times to enforce Sanchez's curfew.

That's right: the government is requiring people — maybe people who are very not nice, but still people — to be homeless and to sleep under a bridge.

Repeat: the government is requiring people to be homeless and to sleep under a bridge.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law, Miami | 1 Comment

It’s Not Just Florida

Posted on March 4, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I do make a certain amount of fun about the weird stuff that happens in South Florida, so it's good to be reminded that equally weird stuff happens elsewhere, including deep in the heartland.

Take this story about John I. Rocko, B.A. in Criminology. According to the Toronto Blade, Police dog's bachelor's degree prods legal howling about chief, it seems that Mr. Rocko is in fact…a police dog. One with higher grades on his B.A. from mail-order degree mill Concordia University than his owner, Chief John McGuire of the Fostoria (Ohio) Police Department received:

While their courseloads were nearly identical, the dog received an A+ in “Structure and Process of the American Court System”; Chief McGuire got a B- in the same class, the transcripts show.

Who got Rocko the Police Dog a $499 B.A. isn't clear, nor are all the legal issues in the case that gave rise to the revelation — they seem to center around the allegation that the Chief's reliance on this dubious credential is one of several reasons why he was validly suspended at the time he purported to arrest the defendant.

Incidentally, a visit to the Concordia web site is enough to make you more than a little nervous. I was quite taken aback by this published testimonial:

Dear Sirs,

I am impressed and delighted with the results of my investment as I have just received my Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Science. The transcripts exceed my expectations, my employer recognized the entire course curriculum as almost identical to his own traditional college transcripts. His initial skepticism about distance learning schools immediately disappeared when he got to verify the copies of your governmental registration papers that were included in my credentials package. Your program must be the fulfilment of every professional’s dream. Thank you so much for this fantastic opportunity.

-Francis D.

I sure hope that's a fake, for the idea of a nuclear engineer running some power plant out there on the basis of a mail-order degree is enough to keep you awake at night.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law | Comments Off on It’s Not Just Florida

Sometimes Miami Law Is Just Like on TV

Posted on March 3, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I like to tell prospective and incoming law students that real-life law is nothing like what you see on TV. But the trouble is, we live in Miami, a place where much more often than it should be real-life law is just as wacky as what you see on TV.

Take for example this account of the past five days in the annals of Miami Law:

(1) a murder trial in which the witnesses give credible evidence that detectives threatened them (including in one case threatening to take the witness's kids into care) in order to get them to give perjured testimony incriminating the defendant — but the increasingly pathetic-looking Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office says it has no intention of investigating whether the cops are bent;

(2) another murder case that lacked a body now features a lead detective who, on the witness stand, was made to admit to sleeping with a key witness.

(3) A local lawyer who runs a massive ticket-fixing business shot and killed an armed mugger by using the handgun he keeps in the glove compartment of his black Mercedes.

In other local traffic news, six-year-old girl foils carjacker by beating on him


“I smacked him on the head with my book”.

(4) Local Hollywood Police Chief James Scarberry blew a three-year-long FBI sting operation into corruption by officers on his force by blabbing about it to at other cops and local politicians. Not surprisingly, word quickly got out to the prime suspects who immediately tried to resign, stopping the investigation into their associates in its tracks and wasting a giant amount of police work. When first confronted about it the Chief told the press a series of lies, which he's gradually been recanting.

(5) A prominent local builder was jailed yesterday, charged with embezzling public funds to buy a sculpture of a giant watermelon slice. He very vigorously contests the charges, and was photographed giving the finger to a reporter.


Local slice of life

(6) Cops arrest blogging photojournalist for taking crime scene photos.

(Post inspired by Justice Building Blog.)

Posted in Law: Criminal Law, Law: Practice, Miami | 2 Comments

Historians Make News!

Posted on January 9, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Riveting Highlights from the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association.

On Thursday, just after noon, the Tufts historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto was arrested by Atlanta police as he crossed the middle of the street between the Hilton and Hyatt hotels. After being thrown on the ground and handcuffed, the former Oxford don was formally arrested, his hands cuffed behind his back. Several policemen pressed hard on his neck and chest, leaving the mild-mannered scholar, who’s never gotten so much as a parking ticket, bruised and in pain. He was then taken to the city detention center along with other accused felons and thrown into a filthy jail cell filled with prisoners. He remained incarcerated for eight hours. Officials demanded bail of over a thousand dollars. To come up up with the money Fernandez-Armesto, the author of nineteen books, had to make an arrangement with a bail bondsman. In court even the prosecutors seemed embarrassed by the incident, which got out of hand when Fernandez-Armesto requested to see the policeman’s identification (the policeman was wearing a bomber jacket; to Fernandez-Armesto, a foreigner unfamiliar with American culture, the officer did not look like an officer). The prosecutors asked the professor to plead nolo contendere. He refused, concerned that the stain on his record might put his green card status in jeopardy. Officials finally agreed to drop all charges. The judge expressed his approval. The professor says he has no plans to sue. But the AHA council is considering lodging a complaint with the city.

The interview with Prof. Fernandez-Armesto is at once hysterically funny and a cringe-making embarrassment to Atlanta,


Click here for Part 2. Click here for Part 3.

Oh yes–the AHA made some history at this meeting too:

At the annual Business Meeting, a proceeding usually featuring dry reports by the organization’s leaders, the members approved an anti-war resolution, the first in the AHA’s existence. The voice vote at the packed meeting was nearly unanimous. It was sponsored by Historians Against the War.

Posted in Iraq, Law: Criminal Law | 2 Comments

Is That a Razr in Your Pocket, or is the FBI Glad to See Me?

Posted on December 2, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Be afraid.

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool. The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone’s microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a “roving bug,” and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.

…

The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the “roving bug” was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect’s cell phone.

Kaplan’s opinion said that the eavesdropping technique “functioned whether the phone was powered on or off.” Some handsets can’t be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.

…

It seems the bugging software can downloaded remotely, without the cops ever touching the phone. And once the handset’s software is compromised, even pushing the “off” button won’t stop it from acting as a bug.

The U.S. Commerce Department’s security office warns that “a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone.” An article in the Financial Times last year said mobile providers can “remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner’s knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call.”

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. “They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time,” he said. “You can do that without having physical access to the phone.”

J. Edgar would have loved this one.

I wonder what the effects are on battery life, however: If my battery suddenly seems to die on me more quickly is that a sign I need a new one, or that I’m being bugged?

Memo to all lawyers: take the battery out of your cell phone when having sensitive conversations.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law, Law: Privacy | 3 Comments

FBI Helped Frame Four Innocent Men (40 Years Ago)

Posted on November 21, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Like a bad novel: Four Were Framed With The FBI’s Help

When a flurry of gunshots ended Edward “Teddy” Deegan’s misspent life more than 40 years ago, there should have been no mystery about who pulled the trigger.

FBI agents had been listening to the murder plot unfold for five months through a microphone hidden in a mob office and through reports from informants. They knew that Vincent “Jimmy” Flemmi and Joseph “The Animal” Barboza, two hoodlums the bureau was recruiting as informants, were behind the conspiracy.

But what should have been an open-and-shut case turned into a legal nightmare. Thousands of recently disclosed U.S. Justice Department records show that the FBI, in order to cultivate Flemmi and Barboza as informants, allowed them to frame four innocent men for the Deegan murder.

Armed with those newly obtained records, the framed men – or their estates – are now seeking more than $100 million in damages from the federal government, arguing that they spent decades in prison because of a morally bankrupt conspiracy between FBI agents and gangsters.

Of course, nothing like this could possibly happen today. No way. No how.

Posted in Law: Criminal Law | 1 Comment