Month: February 2018

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn

We skip the political discussion this week, because so many politicians ended up in the criminal justice news! A Republican governor is indicted for invasion of privacy, a married Democratic mayor pays her police bodyguard overtime so they could have sex in a cemetery, a Republican senator extorted a page for sex, a Democratic Sheriff terrorizes minorities, and on and on it goes. Plus: a #Law140 on the free speech rights of school students!

Remember to check out our Patreon page for exclusive patron-only content!

Join the conversation by following @fsckemall on Twitter, and tweet us your comments and questions using the hashtag #fsck!

Show Notes:

• Study: Prison philosophy classes help reduce violence (UK Independent)
• More “Student Resource Officers” in schools is a fantastically stupid idea (Reason)
• ALABAMA: Authorities botch a truly ghoulish execution attempt of man with cancer (Columbia Law School)
• ALABAMA: Sheriffs steal money from inmates, claim it’s totally legal (AL.com)
• ARIZONA: Mesa PD officers severely injure 84-year-old woman, to “help” her (KPNX 12)
• ARKANSAS: Judge sentenced to 5 years for trading leniency for nudes (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
  • We first mentioned Judge Boeckmann last October (Fsck 31)
• CALIFORNIA: LA County Sheriff’s Deputy Giancarlo Scotti indicted for sexually assaulting 6 women (LA Times)
• FLORIDA: 4 Broward County deputies hid like cowards as children died (NY Post)
  Sheriff Scott Israel was too busy targeting minorities (Broward Palm Beach New Times)
  • Including constant raids on hip-hop concerts (The Sun-Sentinel)
• DC: Armed TN woman rams White House security barrier, taken alive (WTTG 5)
  • Compare with (black) Miriam Carey, who was summarily executed (Washington Post)
• IDAHO: State senator Dan Foreman yells at students for wanting better sex education in schools, threatens to call police (Idaho Statesman)
• ILLINOIS: Police union says Aurora perv cop Daniel Wagner should be reinstated, arbitrator agrees (Chicago Tribune)
• MARYLAND: Corrupt BPD officers Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor have been convicted of racketeering (Baltimore Sun)
  • We talked about the GTTF in Fsck #25
  • …and Fsck #27
  • …and Fsck #32
  • …and Fsck #38
  • …and Fsck #39
  • …and Fsck #41
  • …and Fsck #46
  • …and Fsck #47
  • …and Fsck #50
  • …and Fsck #51
• MINNESOTA: Minneapolis police target Native Americans even more than black men (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
• MISSOURI: Exposé on the state using “envelopes of cash” and other schemes to get death drugs (BuzzFeed)
• MISSOURI: Republican Governor indicted for felony invasion of privacy (NY Times)
  • Our episode on Greitens staying a man’s execution over DNA (Fsck #24)
• MISSOURI: St. Louis police officer John Stewart charged with sodomizing a pregnant woman (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• NEW YORK: NYPD police routinely park illegally on private property (am New York)
• NEW YORK: NYPD killer cop Hugh Barry found not guilty of summarily executing elderly black woman (NY Daily News)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Prison administrator admits abuse is overlooked “because we’re all buddies” (WBTV 3)
• NORTH CAROLINA: ICE deports 14-year resident dying of HIV, no criminal record (News & Observer)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Ramona Brant has passed away (WSOC 9)
• NORTH CAROLINA: All charges dismissed against protestors who destroyed Confederate monument (The Root)
  • I told you this would happen (Fsck #23)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Durham deputy Christopher Kelly, a school resource officer, pleads guilty after sex with student (Durham Herald Sun)
• PENNSYLVANIA: Philly’s new District Attorney revamps bail (WPVI 6)
• RHODE ISLAND: Republican state senator Nicholas Kettle charged for extorting sex from a page (Providence Journal)
• SOUTH CAROLINA: With all other crimes solved, legislators propose making it a crime to sag your pants (WCIV 4)
• TENNESSEE: Democrat Mayor caught on camera shagging bodyguard, who got paid overtime (WTVF 5)
• TEXAS: Student seizes gun from gunman, so Amarillo police shoot the student instead (Amarillo Globe-News)
• TEXAS: Judge instructs magistrates to deny no-cash bail to anyone supporting Black Lives Matter (Houston Chronicle)
• TEXAS: Needville ISD Superintendent Curtis Rhodes threatens to punish students for free speech (Dallas Morning News)
• VERMONT: Burlington PD issues strong statement in support of civil disobedience (Burlington Free Press)
• VIRGINIA: Blacks in Charlottesville 284% more likely to be stopped and frisked without arrest (The Daily Progress)
• CANADA: Toronto transit cops caught on video beating black teen for sport (Toronto Star)
• CANADA: York police explain smoking weed doesn’t “make boobies” (Toronto Star)
• ISRAEL: Tel Aviv judge caught collaborating with prosecutor on corruption case (Jerusalem Post)
• Ken White’s podcast episode on student speech rights (Popehat)
• The First Amendment (LII)
• The Pre-Tinker History of Student Speech Rights (SagePub)
• Tinker v. Des Moines (Oyez)
• Bethel v. Fraser (Oyez)
• Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (Oyez)
• Morse v. Frederick (Oyez)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn

It’s an abridged Fsck this Monday, as T. Greg spends the episode talking politics: the gun control debate following the school shooting in Parkland FL, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller unveiling a 37-page indictment confirming the Russians bought the American Presidency (for cheap!). Plus: Rick Gates agrees to plead guilty in order to help the Trump-Russia probe.

Our weekly summary of criminal justice f*ckery will be out this Thursday!

Remember to check out our Patreon page for exclusive patron-only content!

Join the conversation by following @fsckemall on Twitter, and tweet us your comments and questions using the hashtag #fsck!

[CORRECTION (02/19/18 @ 3:46pm EST): On the podcast, I said “Robert” Gates is pleading guilty in Mueller’s Russia probe; it’s actually *Rick* Gates (Robert Gates was a former Secretary of Defense). The show notes are correct now! Thanks to @gortok for the correction!]

Show Notes:

• Teenager kills 17 at high school in Parkland FL (Miami Herald)
  • The Sun Sentinel’s compilation of follow-up coverage (Sun Sentinel)
• Attorney General Beauregard blames gangs (seriously) (Mother Jones)
• Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin blames music (seriously) (Rolling Stone)
• Ken White’s “Talking Productively About Guns” (Popehat.com)
• WCVB 5 looks into what an “assault weapons ban” means in practice (YouTube)
• Robert Mueller has indicted a lot of Russians for helping Donald Trump (NY Times)
  • Read the indictment in its entirety here (US Dept of Justice)
• Rick Gates will be pleading guilty to testify against Paul Manafort (LA Times)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn

Join us this week as two separate wife-beaters resign from the Trump White House, judges in Kentucky and Texas face indictment, two deputies in Durham NC face DWI charges, and police in Georgia and Missouri flip the Parable of the Good Samaritan on its head by arresting one and shooting the other. Then in our #Law140 segment we give you an overview of the overbreadth doctrine, and how a North Carolina law was ruled unconstitutional last week in one of my cases!

Remember to check out our Patreon page for exclusive patron-only content!

Join the conversation by following @fsckemall on Twitter, and tweet us your comments and questions using the hashtag #fsck!

Show Notes:

• One of our clients is apparently on Reddit (Reddit)
• The Government shut down again… for 6 hours (Politico)
• Staff Secretary Rob Porter resigns after beating 2 ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend (The Hill)
• Speechwriter David Sorenson resigns after running over ex-wife with a car (Vox)
• Of course scumbag Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly defended them though (Vanity Fair)
  • I forewarned y’all Gen. Kelly couldn’t be trusted (Fsck #19)
• Sixth Circuit: the “particularity” requirements of a warrant are more like suggestions (6th Circ COA)
• Ninth Circuit: No lawyer for children facing deportation (The Hill)
  • The opinion in CLJG v Sessions (9th Circ COA)
• Tenth Circuit: Convictions upheld for man who trolled Tulsa PD over Terence Crutcher’s killing (Tulsa World)
  • The opinion in US v Stevens (10th Circ COA)
• 35 states let police rape someone in their custody (BuzzFeed)
  • In NC, it’s legal except for a less-serious crime (Twitter)
• Long-read on the First Amendment application to reporters exposing police abuse (The Intercept)
• Some of the language police unions get into contracts to protect dirty cops (Marginal Revolution)
• People think crime is worse than it is, and most crimes go unsolved (Pew Research Center)
• Attorney General Beauregard insists marijuana is a gateway drug (Twitter)
• Classified Homeland Security documents left on plane (CNN)
• ARIZONA: ICE deports man whose 5-year-old citizen son is battling cancer (The Hill)
• ARIZONA: Women prisoners get 12 pads a month, banned from buying tampons if they bleed on their clothes (Arizona Republic)
• CALIFORNIA: Big changes for those convicted of weed crimes now that Prop 64 is in effect (Business Insider)
• CALIFORNIA: But the Los Angeles DA will not undo prior pot convictions now that weed is legal (89.3 KPCC)
• CALIFORNIA: Sacramento police collaborate with Nazis to prosecute those with “anti-racist” beliefs (UK Guardian)
• CALIFORNIA: Conejo Valley school board member Mike Dunn tries to shame critic’s employer (TechDirt)
• CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles deputies kill “armed” 16-year-old Anthony Weber, magically can’t find gun (KTLA 5)
• GEORGIA: Woman sues for being raped 8 times while in prison, police repeatedly pull her over after release (INTO)
• GEORGIA: Georgia State Patrol Sgt. Rodney Jeter arrests Good Samaritan for saving woman’s life (KNRS 105.9)
• ILLINOIS: Cook County jailers’ union locks down massive pay hikes (Chicago Sun-Times)
• ILLINOIS: At least 15 Chicago PD officers now involved in scandal stealing drugs, framing residents (WMAQ 5)
  • Our episode when this story first broke (Fsck #50)
• ILLINOIS: Chicago PD officer given paid vacation while being investigated for sexual assault (Chicago Sun-Times)
• KENTUCKY: State Police think anal rape is funny (The Courier Journal)
• KENTUCKY: Trump campaign chairman, former judge Timothy Nolan pleads guilty to sex trafficking of children (Cincinnati Enquirer)
• MAINE: Missing comma leads to $5M settlement (Portland Press Herald)
• MARYLAND: Dead Det. Sean Suiter also stole money with the Gun Trace Task Force (Baltimore Sun)
• MARYLAND: Baltimore PD detective kicked out of the corrupt GTTF when he refused to steal (Baltimore Sun)
  • We talked about the GTTF in Fsck #25
  • …and Fsck #27
  • …and Fsck #32
  • …and Fsck #38
  • …and Fsck #39
  • …and Fsck #41
  • …and Fsck #46
  • …and Fsck #47
  • …and Fsck #50
• MISSOURI: Police shoot innocent, unarmed Good Samaritan for protecting store patrons from gunman (Kansas City Star)
• MISSOURI: Retired judge Evelyn Baker sentenced a black teenager to 241 years in prison, now says she was wrong (The Intercept)
• MISSOURI: White man robs two black men in St. Louis, then convinces police to arrest them (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• MONTANA: Labor Department Jordon Dyrdahl-Roberts resigns rather than help ICE break up families (Twitter)
• NEW YORK: Mentally ill woman killed by NYPD Sgt. Hugh Barry did not swing bat as claimed (NY Times)
• NORTH CAROLINA: State Highway Patrol wastes thousands of dollars, assaults report asking questions (News & Observer)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Durham deputy charged with DWI after crashing into tractor trailer (Durham Herald-Sun)
  • Durham police have bad luck with tractor trailers too (Fsck #27)
• NORTH CAROLINA: A different Durham deputy charged with DWI after speeding 101 in a 65 (Durham Herald-Sun)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Charges against anti-Klan protestors dismissed, statute ruled unconstitutional (Durham Herald-Sun)
  • Our episode on what happened that day (Fsck #23)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Excellent long-read on the f*ckery of NC’s bail system (Indy Week)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Davidson County deputy Jeff Athey arrested for robbing a bank in Rockwell (WGHP 8)
• OHIO: ICE deports “pillar of the community” who committed no crime, lived in US 40 years (CNN)
• OKLAHOMA: Police summarily execute 72-year-old black woman woken up by drug raid (Reason)
• OKLAHOMA: Federal judge Stephen Friot gives woman shorter prison sentence as sterilization reward (The Oklahoman)
  • This type of eugenics program was going on in Tennessee too (Fsck #17)
• PENNSYLVANIA: McKean County deputy Colin Meeker suspended for taking down Nazi flag on private property (Newsweek)
• TENNESSEE: Memphis PD leaves body in impounded van for 49 days (WHBQ 13)
• TENNESSEE: White County Sheriff Oddie Shoupe on bodycam saying “I love this sh*t” after ordering suspect’s killing (UK Guardian)
• TEXAS: Clean cars are not reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop (TheNewspaper.com)
  • The Court opinion in Texas v. Cortez (TheNewspaper.com)
• TEXAS: Judge Rodolfo Delgado indicted for accepting bribes to influence case outcomes (San Antonio Express-News)
• CHINA: Zhengzhou Railway Police use facial recognition glasses connected to police databases (Twitter)
• First Amendment (LII)
• Second Amendment (LII)
• NC Gen Stat 14-277.2 (NCGA)
• The First Amendment Overbreadth Doctrine (JSTOR)
• Broadrick v. Oklahoma (Oyez)
• Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (Oyez)
• Packingham v. North Carolina (Oyez)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn

It’s a shorter-than-normal Fsck this week because T. Greg had the flu, but we still fit in stories about the Nunes meh-mo, totally bonkers testimony about Maryland’s corrupt Gun Trace Task Force, more ICE stupidity, and the wide variety of police getting charged with dealing drugs.

Episode 49, a #Law140 on how the First Amendment applies to the Executive Branch, is on our Patreon page exclusively for our patrons! We’ll hopefully be back to regular episodes next week!

Join the conversation by following @fsckemall on Twitter, and tweet us your comments and questions using the hashtag #fsck!

Show Notes:

• The Nunes memo has been released. Emphasis on “meh.” (Vice News)
• Federal regulators approve a legal defense fund for Trump Administration staff (CNN)
• ARIZONA: Police chase ends in violent, head-on crash with innocent civilian (KMPH 26)
• CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles criminalizes homelessness (LA Times)
• CALIFORNIA: Mentally ill 34yo Bertram Hiscock jailed to death (Sacramento Bee)
• COLORADO: Middle school teacher Karen Smith given a paid vacation for assaulting student who didn’t stand for the Pledge (Denver Post)
  • A Michigan student was assaulted too (Fsck #27)
  • And a Texas student was expelled (Fsck #31)
  • Sitting during the Pledge has been legal for 75 years (Oyez)
• FLORIDA: Federal judge strikes down lifetime ban on felon voting rights (Tampa Bay Times)
  • Judge Walker’s opinion (DocumentCloud)
• ILLINOIS: Government attorney resigns over withholding evidence in civil rights lawsuit (Chicago Tribune)
• ILLINOIS: ICE detains Army veteran who served several tours in Afghanistan, to be deported over drug charge (Chicago Tribune)
• ILLINOIS: Seven Chicago PD officers caught on FBI video stealing money, drugs (WBBM 2)
• KANSAS: ICE seizes chemistry professor while taking his daughter to school (Kansas City Star)
• MARYLAND: A compilation of the eye-popping testimony about Baltimore’s corrupt Gun Trace Task Force (Vox)
  • We talked about the GTTF in Fsck #25
  • …and Fsck #27
  • …and Fsck #32
  • …and Fsck #38
  • …and Fsck #39
  • …and Fsck #41
  • …and Fsck #46
  • …and Fsck #47
• MARYLAND: A third of Baltimore’s new police don’t understand the law (Baltimore Sun)
• MARYLAND: Hagerstown PD officer Christopher Barnett arrested for stealing paralyzed woman’s medication (Herald-Mail Media)
• MICHIGAN: Police apologize for ignoring victim of Dr. Larry Nassar in 2004 (Chicago Tribune)
• MISSISSIPPI: Starkville PD radio operator indicted for murdering newborn… but coroner hasn’t even reviewed the case (The Dispatch)
• NEW YORK: State Parks police had to “offer up” their wives for promotions (NY Post)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Charlotte-Mecklenburg police kill suicidal 27yo Charlie Shoupe (Charlotte Observer)
  • Compare with Fresno CA, where a suicidal man with a knife was stopped without killing him (Fsck #27)
  • Even Baltimore police stopped a suicidal man with a knife without killing him (Fsck #37)
• NORTH CAROLINA: Durham PD prevents pair of suicides (Facebook)
• PENNSYLVANIA: Pittsburgh homicide detective Peg Sherwood indicted for lying, falsifying reports (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• UNITED KINGDOM: Bristol police tase man with autism, lie about it, cleared of wrongdoing (UK Guardian)