Posts Tagged ‘court’

Mother Murder Trial Draws Much Media Attention

By alisa in Crime, murder at May 22nd, 2011 | No comments

The trial of Casey Anthony, the 25-year-old mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, is drawing so much media attention that the judge is keeping the location of jury selection secret until the proceedings begin. Jurors selected in the case will have to put their lives on hold for almost two months. They will be transported to Orlando and sequestered at a hotel. The estimated cost is $300,000.

Anthony also is charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and providing false information to law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty and says a baby-sitter kidnapped Caylee.

The Anthony case became a media sensation, as HLN talk show host Nancy Grace gave her the moniker “Tot Mom.” Protesters suspecting Anthony had a role in her daughter’s disappearance demonstrated outside of the home Anthony shared with her parents.

Caylee’s decomposed remains were found in December 2008 by a municipal meter reader in woods not far from where the little girl lived with her mother and grandparents in Florida. Detectives said residue of a heart-shaped sticker was found on duct tape over the mouth of her skull. The local medical examiner, Jan Garavaglia, who once had her own national television show, “Dr. G: Medical Examiner,” ruled that a cause of death could not be determined. The autopsy said that Caylee’s bones didn’t suffer trauma.

Some outside experts said the lack of a cause of death could make it hard to get a first-degree murder conviction. Read the full article »

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Funny Lawyer Courtroom Comments

By MSI in Attorney Services, court cases, Infidelity, Interrogation, Investigations, legal papers, process service, service of summons, witness statement at May 9th, 2011 | No comments

These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
The words below have not been verified but it is very funny no matter what! Since I have many family members, friends and clients who are lawyers, I can legally pass this humor on without fear of being sued.

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, ‘Where am I, Cathy?’
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget..
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He’s 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
(My Favorite)
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
____________________________________________
(Another favorite)
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death…
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them… The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No…
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

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Grandma Witness Goes to Court

By MSI in Attorney Services, court cases, Infidelity, testimony, witness statement at September 7th, 2010 | No comments

This story is just plain funny!  Sent to me by a friend from across the ocean.  Not sure if this is true so I cannot swear to it.  But I can imagine this could happen in some smaller jurisdictions.

Lawyers should never ask a Mississippi grandma a question if they aren’t prepared for the answer. In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand.

He approached her and asked, ‘Mrs. Jones, do you know me?’ She responded, ‘Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you’ll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.’ The lawyer was stunned.

Read the full article »

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Teen Freed After Facebook Alibi

By admin in MSI Detective Services, Safety, Security at November 14th, 2009 | 2 comments

cuffsIt seems like one of those questions that there’s no hope in answering: “Where were you on Tuesday the 3rd at 10pm?” Thinking…thinking…thinking…do I tell these guys that I don’t know where I was this morning, let alone three weeks ago on a Tuesday. No, they’d just think I was being sarcastic. They’be be right.

Although our world is filled with technical wonders that enable us to see in the dark, send messages to one another without pen or paper, and even watch movies while driving, we haven’t come up with an alibi tool that can aid us in proving where were at such-and-such time.  Thus, it is our responsibility to recall:

  • Where we were on a specific date (and time)
  • What we were doing on said date
  • If there are corroborating witnesses to back our story

After reading Rodney Bradley’s story, it struck me that I had better figure out a method of documenting my whereabouts in some measurable method, or I could end up answering questions for which I don’t have any answers.


Bradford

Bradford

On October 17th, two men were mugged at gunpoint in Brooklyn, NY. Rodney Bradford, facing a 2009 robbery indictment for an unrelated case, learned that he was not only a suspect in the October 17th mugging, but the police were actively searching for him. Having absolutely nothing to fear, Bradford turned himself in, thinking that he would be quickly exonerated as a suspect and go his merry way. That’s not the way things worked out; he was identified in a police lineup, charged with first degree robbery, and was on his way to Rikers Island that afternoon.

Luckily, his father discovered that son Rodney had updated his Facebook status a minute prior to the crime. Or, he updated his status and then ran all the way to Brooklyn to commit the crime. From Harlem. No, there’s absolutely no way Rodney could have committed the crime. Thus, his attorney subpoenaed Facebook to provide documentation that would prove the account was updated from his Harlem location. It worked, and the case was thrown out of court.

Good or bad, we live in a society where our location can be determined by what cell phone tower bounced a mobile phone call, surveillance cameras exist on street corners, in businesses, and on poles in high-crime areas, and computers date stamp everything. According to attorney Jonathan Handel;

“We’re in a much more trackable world…The extent to which it means that the right people get prosecuted and the innocent get their cases dropped, that’s all the good.”

And the bad? Invasion of privacy.

One possibility, not addressed in court, is that Brandon committed the crime while an accomplice updated his Facebook page; if this is the case, we may be opening a can of worms, aka; “The Facebook Defense.”

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