Pennsylvania lawyers are no doubt sitting by their phones, hoping that someone will call to report that they, too, were a victim of Jerry Sandusky’s lust. There’s great money to be made in claims of child sex abuse. Just ask the Catholic Church, which has paid claimants in a series of high-price settlements of child-sex claims. Big institutions have deep pockets and public relations departments that care about image.
Sandusky was for many years defense coordinator for the football team at Pennsylvania State University. He retired in 1999, but retained an office and full...
November 9, 2011
It comes as a surprise to many people to learn that the federal courts do not recognize a right to privacy as a matter of constitutional law. But it is true. In large part, that is because at the time the Constitution was drafted, few would have thought it necessary to include such a right in the list of those protected by the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The federal government was a comparatively weak and puny thing in that era; it was regarded as one of limited, or enumerated, powers. It did not have the authority to act unless that authority had been...
November 7, 2011
Let me see if I understand this: Requiring Joshua Komisarjevsky’s daughter to testify in the death-penalty phase of his trial might harm her psychologically, but it is just fine and dandy for the state to kill her father?
Lawyers for Komisarjevsky plan to call their client’s nine-year-old daughter to the stand, presumably to shed some light on something other than the ten-hour period in his life in which he participated in the savage murder of two children and their mother, crimes for which he has already been found guilty.
The state opposes permitting the child to...
November 6, 2011
Here’s a question I hope comes to a courtroom in Connecticut within the next 30 days: Will the United States Government be forced to reimburse North Haven businessman Frank Ruocco for his legal fees?
Mr. Ruocco was acquitted of 19 counts Friday afternoon by a federal jury in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He, an associate, and his company, Earth Technology, Inc., were charged with fraud in a scheme involving alleged overstated invoices and other affirmative acts of fraud. The Government was dogged in its pursuit of this case, zeroing in on a company involved in...
November 4, 2011
November 3, 2011
You can sing Kumbaya until you are hoarse, and I’m betting the big money boys and girls on Wall Street, in the nation’s boardrooms, and...
November 2, 2011
I’ve never met Eric Robert of South Dakota, but what I’ve read about him makes me wonder whether he is a little too sane for the rest of...
October 27, 2011
Twice in twenty-four hours I recently drew criticism from folks I respect. So I am doing a little soul-searching.
I was on a panel in New...
October 23, 2011
I am sick to death of the Cheshire home invasion cases. They linger, like a nightmare that will not go away. If there is a reason for good cheer, it...
October 21, 2011
“These men are human beings, not chimpanzees or gorillas. They belong to the same species as we do. And we’re not hardwired to commit...
October 20, 2011
I suppose reports that the Security and Exchange Commission just extracted a $285 million settlement from Citigroup for mortgage-related fraud ought...