Current trial/cases thread

Interesting case. These total shitheads tried to launder billions of hacked Bitcoin.

I don't think anyone figured Palin was going to get anything in the trial.  This has always been looking like an appeal, but kind of hope it doesn't go there, the NYT testimony was fantastic and enough.


“We come to this case with our eyes wide open, keenly aware of the fact that we’re fighting an uphill battle,” Palin lawyer Shane Vogt

The Appeals Court Waits for Governor Palin

If we were the Second United States Circuit Court of Appeals — a stretch to be sure — we would reject Judge Jed Rakoff’s dismissal of Governor Palin’s libel case against the New York Times and hold the judge himself in contempt of court. The whole reason this case went to trial, after all, is because the Second Circuit overturned Judge Rakoff’s attempt to dismiss her claim in the first place.

In the event, Judge Rakoff presided over a trial that was an exercise in truculence. When it looked like the jury might find for Mrs. Palin, His Honor announced in open court that he was going to throw out any verdict the jury might bring in against the Times. Then he brought the jury in to, ostensibly, wish them a Happy Valentine’s day. He hinted that there might be news in the case but told the jurors not to read it. The Times had already put out a push notification.

The un-sequestered jurors returned the next day with what amounted to — surprise — a bouquet of roses for the Times. We can’t prove that they'd heard the news that the judge had already decided the case. Then again, too, the judge can’t prove that they didn’t. Imagine how Mrs. Palin feels, a mother whom the Times falsely accused of having incited the slaughter at Tucson in which Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was almost killed.

The judge might have stayed his own tongue and waited for the jury. If the jury then had found against Mrs. Palin, he’d have been in a better spot. Now it is not only the jury, but the court itself that Mrs. Palin could well put under review if she appeals. The riders of the Second Circuit would be unlikely to go for contempt. It’s not unlikely that they’d open up the questions raised in the Southern District afresh.

That — as our A.R. Hoffman reports elsewhere in our columns — is because the judge’s dismissal of the case would be considered “de novo.” That means that the appeals court would not need to give any deference to Judge Rakoff’s conclusion that Mrs. Palin failed to meet the standard for “actual malice.” The circuit riders get to decide that question by their own lights, with no preconceptions.

Normally it would be more difficult for the Second, or any, Circuit to toss aside a jury’s verdict. In this case, though, it might be easier to do that because of Judge Rakoff’s haling the jury into open court and hinting that he’d already made big news in the case. Was the jury tainted? Even without that question, the Second Circuit could conclude that the jury’s verdict was, on the merits, “clearly erroneous.”

The circuit sages could look at the record and demand to know: If the facts adduced in the Times case don’t amount to “actual malice,” then what in blazes would constitute actual malice? This species of malice is supposed to mean either uttering a libel knowing that it was false or uttering it with reckless disregard for the truth. To us it looks like the erstwhile editorial page editor of the Times is in jeopardy either way.

Victim's Rape Kit Helped Identify Her as a Suspect in Another Case, DA Says

DNA samples collected from victims of sexual assault are being used by the San Francisco Police Department to identify them as possible suspects in other crimes, the San Francisco district attorney charged this week, adding that he would encourage legislation to ban the practice.

www.yahoo.com/news/victims-rape-kit-helped-identify-131134983.html

If this wasn't so fucked up, I would post it in the Bee or not the Bee thread.

Cynthia Perkins sentenced in Livingston Parish court



LIVINGSTON, La. (WAFB) - Cynthia Perkins was sentenced to 40 years in Livingston Parish court on Friday, February 18, 2022.

Prior to sentencing, Perkins issued an apology to her family, former friends, former coworkers, students, victims, and Livingston Parish.

Cynthia Perkins accepted a plea deal from prosecutors on Monday, Feb. 14 in exchange for testifying against her ex-husband, Dennis Perkins.

Perkins pleaded guilty Monday, Feb. 14 to second-degree rape, production of child pornography, and mingling of harmful substances.

She was sentenced Friday to 40 years at hard labor without the benefit of probation or parole. One of production of child porn: 30 years concurrent one count of conspiracy of mingling harmful substances, one year consecutive will be required to register as a sex offender for life.

Per the plea deal, Perkins had to agree to certain facts in the case such as assisting her husband in the sexual assault of a juvenile, helping Dennis film a juvenile while bathing, and lacing desserts with Dennis’ semen before giving them to ....

www.wafb.com/2022/02/18/cynthia-perkins-sentenced-livingston-parish-court/

www.yahoo.com/video/la-da-backtracks-sentencing-26-185603062.html

In 2014 a 17 year old man (2 weeks shy of 18) named James Tubbs violently sexually assaults a 10 year old girl in a Dennys bathroom in California.

In 2019, while on the run James is arrested for stabbing someone in Idaho. DNA evidence taken from his booking links him to the sexual assault in 2014, he quickly confessed to the crime. James has an extensive violent criminal background across several states.

In 2022, now identifying as female and going by the name Hannah Tubbs, she pleads guilty. LA District Attorney, George Gascon, who campaigned and was elected due to his soft on crime approach charges Hannah as a juvenile even though she is now 26 years old. Hannah is sentenced to 2 years in an all female juvenile detention facility. Gascon states his reason for charging Tubbs as a juvenile is that he worried for the suspects safety should they be placed in a male adult prison due to ,gender transitioning (still biologically male, no surgeries have been performed towards reassignment). Gascon deemed that a better solution was to have the violent 26 year sexual predator serve 2 years with female minors.

Due to the fact Tubbs was charged as a juvenile she will not need to register as a sex offender upon release.

Also Gascon had knowledge of several jail recordings between Tubbs and her father in which she gloats and boasts about how light of a sentence she was getting.

The victim from 2014 moved out of state, lives in seclusion and receives intensive therapy to this day due to the traumatic attack she endured.

Kind of amazing a sexual offender got any jail time at all in this country.