A prosecutor has accused a defense attorney of delaying a capital murder trial by having the defendant punch her. Is that a crazy defense or not?

A Tyler jury found a woman not guilty by reason of insanity after 5 experts concludes she was insane. Read the story.

Apparently, Philadelphia defendants are unhappy with the sentencing results they are getting. This defendant went for the judge (as yet another crazy defense move) and got shot for his efforts. Read the story. How many prosecutors out there want their bailiff drawing and firing in the courtroom?

Sometimes those crazy defenses work. From an earlier post, here is the rest of the story.

Hope this isn't going to be a trend. A defendant is unhappy with the cross of a witness, so attacks her when she leaves the witness stand. Read the story.

How about this for a defense: hey, their dad did it. Read on:

Judge convicts mother of tap dancers
He bans her from Quarter for 1 year
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
By Gwen Filosa
Staff writer

A New Orleans woman is forbidden to enter the French Quarter for one year, after a judge convicted her of illegally letting her children tap dance for money on Bourbon Street.

Dione M. Smith, 27, was found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile on Friday in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

While police have made such arrests before, Smith's case represents the stiffest sentence handed down in the city's ongoing crackdown of child dancers tapping for bills and change from tourists, legal observers said.

As Smith found out, police are ready to arrest parents and guardians, who they say are exploiting and endangering children by having them tap for money.

On the afternoon of Feb. 22, the Sunday before Mardi Gras, Smith brought three children -- ages 5, 6, and 13 -- to the of the Quarter to dance for cash. Within a couple of hours, police said, the dancers had raked in about $150.

Judge Raymond Bigelow ruled that Smith violated Louisiana law by having her children essentially beg for money as they tap-danced for passers-by, an act that he said put them in harm's way.

"It's not the same city it was 20 years ago," Bigelow said from the bench. "You can't have young people out there. It is dangerous. People will jack them. I think you have violated that statute."

He ordered her to complete 100 hours of community service, gave her a 30-day suspended jail sentence and then barred her and her children from entering the Quarter for one year.

If police spot her within the historic district, Bigelow warned, she will be arrested. The Quarter ban was part of a one-year probation for Smith.

District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office originally charged Smith with cruelty to a juvenile in connection with the tap dancing, which police consider a growing problem that promotes begging, truancy and parental neglect.

Following a tradition

But on the day of trial, prosecutors reduced the charge to contributing to delinquency. The state's key witness was 8th District Commander Capt. Louis Dabdoub III, who, along with Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, have made a visible effort to "clean up" the Quarter.

Smith's public defenders argued that the children -- including at least two of her own -- were carrying on a New Orleans artistic tradition by dancing in the street for strangers. When Bigelow asked why the children didn't just dance at home, Smith's attorneys said that the experience wasn't the same.

"They want to dance on Bourbon Street, where their fathers danced," said defense attorney Dylan Utley, who insisted the children's dancing did not amount to begging.

Tap dancing in the Quarter is not illegal. Dancers who block streets or harass passers-by, however, may find themselves in police's way. Authorities pay even closer attention when the activity involves children under 17.

Although Smith wasn't accused of anything besides allowing the children to dance for cash, police have seen other cases in which adults use child dancers to make money for their own illicit drug habits.

Love of tap

"The question is, where are the parents?" said police spokesman Capt. Marlon Defillo. "The parents are neglectful for exploiting the children to this magnitude."

According to the police report, officers spotted five juveniles dancing in front of 623 Bourbon St. at about 3:30 p.m., with no adult supervision. The children said their mother made them dance for cash. When officers caught up with Smith, they reported her saying, "I brought the children down here. What's wrong?"

Smith testified that her children love to tap. Even if the children didn't place a box for "donations," people would give them money anyway, she said.

"It's common courtesy," she told Bigelow from the witness stand.

Her attorneys argued over the legal definition of begging and tried to sway the judge with details about the children's supposed love of tap.

Assistant District Attorney David Abdullah, however, said the issue wasn't New Orleans' dancing lore.

"These are children," said Abdullah. "They are supposed to be under the supervision of adults. A lot of things can happen when you have young children in the French Quarter. There is a big difference between adults doing this for money and children doing this out there to earn some money."

A group of boys from a local parochial school was in the courtroom as part of a field trip Friday. After the trial, two adult chaperones asked Capt. Dabdoub if lemonade stands and car washes are OK for kids to earn cash. He assured them those were a different matter.

Mr. Bojangles is rolling over in his (unmarked) grave, no doubt ...

For a good description of the mind of the criminal (which explains why they have such crazy defenses), read this essay by a crook.

Appeals court says $3 billion bail unconstitutional for millionaire


After being found innocent in slaying, Durst held on bond-jumping charges

By Juan A. Lozano
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, June 3, 2004

HOUSTON -- The $3 billion bail set for New York real estate heir Robert Durst for bond-jumping and evidence-tampering charges is unconstitutionally excessive and should be reduced, an appeals court has ruled.

Durst, 61, was found innocent in November of intentionally killing his neighbor, 71-year-old Morris Black. He has remained jailed in Galveston, however, because he fled the island city shortly after his 2001 arrest following the discovery of Black's dismembered remains.

State District Judge Susan Criss had set bail at $2 billion for two bond-jumping charges and $1 billion for an evidence-tampering charge. Durst's attorneys appealed the amounts to the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston, which ruled Tuesday.

The appeals court noted that even if Durst paid bail, he would still be ordered to surrender his passport, not leave Galveston County or adjacent Harris County without approval, appear weekly in court and be kept under 24-hour guard at his own expense.

"There's never been in history bail set at $1 billion, let alone $3 billion," Durst attorney Dick DeGuerin said. "I don't think Saddam Hussein's bail would be that high."

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk's office issued a statement late Wednesday saying the ruling would not be appealed.

DeGuerin said bail of $50,000 total or for each charge would be fair. Additional hearings on a reduction have not been scheduled.

Durst is set to go to trial Feb. 16 on the three charges, although Sistrunk's office said it would ask that the trial be held this year. If convicted, Durst could face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each charge.

DeGuerin said he has considered asking Criss for a change of venue. Durst's defense team has conducted polls in Galveston, Nueces, Tarrant and Travis counties and found that public opinion of Durst is not favorable, he said.

"The trials, we would like to get over fairly soon. But the feelings are far too high to be tried in Galveston, let alone in Texas," DeGuerin said.

The millionaire, who came to Galveston to escape renewed suspicion in the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, testified during his trial that he accidentally shot Black in September 2001 as they struggled for a gun in Durst's apartment.

He contended that he panicked, cut up the body and dumped the pieces in Galveston Bay. Black's head remains missing.

A jury acquitted Durst after more than 26 hours of deliberations spread over five days.

Durst left Galveston, about 50 miles southeast of Houston, but returned and was arrested in October 2001. He posted bail and ran again, then was caught a month later in Pennsylvania.

His family runs the Durst Organization, a privately held billion-dollar New York company.

I was not involved with this one, but I attended the trial to show support as a volunteer of the Rape Crisis Center:

Aggravated sexual assault case. The defendant took the stand and testified that the victim, a perhaps-100-pound slightly mentally retarded 13 year old girl had in fact sexually assaulted him. Yep, she came to his trailer, stripped, and forced herself on this poor, 180-pound middle aged man. But he got away before any actual penetration occurred, of course.

Somewhere in the course of all this, he, as he put it, "messed himself". He went to clean up with a towel while she still lay naked on his couch/bed. When he came back, he was so angry at her for assaulting him that he threw the towel at her, which landed in her pubic area, which accounts for the (as the examining physician testified) "massive amount" of seminal fluid found in her vaginal vault. Even the jury members were looking at each other in disbelief during this story.

Unfortunately for him, the jury evidently didn't feel that his story adequately explained the situation, nor why she fled naked from his trailer. They found him guilty in a heartbeat, and the judge gave him 50 years, saying, "It is my intention that you never see the light of day again."

Seems our German cannibal, on retrial, did not do so well:

German cannibal gets a life sentence
Frankfurt -- A self-confessed German cannibal was jailed for life yesterday after a court here found him guilty of murder for killing and partly eating an allegedly willing victim he had met on the Internet.

The court found that Armin Meiwes, known as the "cannibal of Rotenburg," killed his victim to satisfy his sexual urges.

Mr. Meiwes, 44, immediately said that he would appeal the sentence, signalling another round in a long legal process that has laid bare a hitherto secret market in cannibalism. AFP

For more details, click here.

[This message was edited by John Bradley on 05-10-06 at .]

It needs to be written into the law that this defense, if attempted, automatically triples the eventual punishment.

Ohio Man Claims Right To Have Sex With Boys

Notice how all of his "consenting" "congregants" were mentally disabled?

By Matt Pordum
Court TV
DETROIT � On Oct. 27, 2004, James Flemons walked into work with a homemade samurai sword and slashed his co-worker to death.

Prosecutors say Flemons, then 30, was angry because of constant bullying by the victim, Anthony Williams, and other co-workers at Peerless Metal Powders & Abrasive.

But Flemons' lawyer says he is schizophrenic with a psychotic obsession with fantasy role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons.

Opening statements in Flemons' murder trial are expected Wednesday.

Williams arrived at his job the day of the killing armed with a homemade 38-inch samurai sword. Witnesses told police that Flemons appeared to hand Williams a piece of metal in a chivalrous manner, as if challenging him to a duel, before chasing him and stabbing him to death.

Story continues



The medical examiner ruled that Williams died as a result of "multiple chop wounds to the neck."

Witnesses told police that, after the killing, Flemons bought a beer and cigar at a nearby convenience store. He then returned to the scene and positioned Williams' body as if on a cross. Then he opened the beer and lit the cigar as he waited for the police to arrive, his colleagues said.

In a voluntary statement to police, Flemons admitted attacking Williams in response to constant bullying about his fantasy game obsession.

Less than a month after Williams' death, Flemons was found not competent to stand trial and was sent to the State Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Ypsilanti for further evaluation.

To be declared competent to stand trial, an individual must understand the nature of the proceedings and be able to assist counsel in defending their case.

Under Michigan law, the state has 15 months in which to medicate and treat individuals deemed not competent to stand trial. If the person is still found not competent at the end of that period, prosecutors can file to have him committed to a mental institution.

Flemons' lawyer, David Roby, said his client was deemed competent to stand trial only two weeks before the 15-month deadline was reached.

"The doctors said that even though he's hearing voices out of the television that are directing aspects of his life and he's suffering from other mood-altering delusions ... 'he's made such progress we think he's competent,'" Roby said.

Roby said Flemons was obsessed with magic, fantasy, the occult, voodoo, Santeria, telekinesis and spirits.

"He played Dungeons & Dragons and was obsessive with games of fantasy, anything that helped him get away from people and hide from them in his own little cocoon," Roby said.

The defense attorney rejected any notion that Flemons acted in a cold, calculated way, saying instead that his client is "delusional and psychotic."

"This is a case about whether, as a society, we hold the psychotic responsible for every act they commit," Roby said.

Deputy Prosecutor Kam Towns said her case will focus on the testimony of former colleagues who witnessed the attack and that of a forensic psychologist.

Towns also said she hopes to introduce Flemons' 1998 conviction of felonious assault for attacking his uncle with a samurai sword. He also attacked the police officer who responded to the scene.

He was sentenced to two years' probation.

Roby said that although Flemons was deemed competent to stand trial in that case, the doctors who evaluated him said he "probably was suffering from a thought disorder, a delusional disorder, which is to say, schizophrenia."

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry is expected to rule before trial Wednesday on whether Flemons' prior conviction can be introduced at trial.

If Flemons is found guilty of first-degree murder, he will automatically be sentenced to life in prison without parole. A verdict of guilty but mentally ill, however, would mean a life sentence in the prison psychiatric ward.

If the jury returns a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, Flemons would be sent to the state's mental health facility, where the doctors would maintain sole discretion over his fate. They could opt to release him at some point if they consider him well.

The jury also has the option of finding Flemons guilty of second-degree murder, which would require the judge to sentence him.

Flemons' trial is expected to last five days and will be aired live on Court TV Extra.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

A GAMBLER WITH A DISORDER, OR JUST A PLAIN OLD THIEF?
For the man in the pinstriped suit, staring at the judge, staring at the clock, the next 106 minutes will determine the next four years.

He is thin, a marathoner, with a short bowl haircut and a long nose. This morning, he said goodbye to his two children, bear-hugging them, just in case.

Paul Theodore Del Vacchio, now 41, is a gambler. In Riverside County Superior Court, a psychologist testifies that Del Vacchio fed his impulse-control disorder with online wagering, not caring about the win or loss, just the high of the bet.

This is why he stole half a million dollars from his employer, an Indian casino, Del Vacchio tells the judge. It was a compulsion. He needed to cover his losses.

His wife, Monica, 39, adds her own plea: "He has earned my love and my trust and my support."

Judge James T. Warren considers whether the defendant before him is an honorable man whose addiction made him stumble, or a schemer and crook. The judge's face reveals nothing.

[The judge sentenced him to 4 years in prison.]

Coming soon to a courtroom near you -- "It's a fair cop, but society is to blame. Oh, and I was raised by abusive monkeys, too."

----------------------------------------

Abuse can alter brain, study finds
Low serotonin linked to cycle of cruelty

By Ronald Kotulak
Chicago Tribune science reporter

November 2, 2006

A new study on monkeys raised by abusive mothers suggests that growing up in an abusive household can alter brain chemistry in a way that makes some youngsters prone to mistreating their own children when they grow up.

In other words, abuse is not just something that's learned from living with abusive parents, although that may have an influence, according to authors of the report, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

Suffering through abuse also appears to permanently lower the brain's production of an important regulator of emotions called serotonin, said Dario Maestripieri, the study's lead author and an associate professor at the University of Chicago in comparative human development. Low serotonin can make people more prone to acts of rejection, impulsive aggression and violence.

Of course, most children who were abused do not become abusers themselves. But some do, and the findings of the study may help explain this troubling cycle where victims of abuse later mistreat their own children.

The results emphasize the need for programs to reduce child abuse and to develop behavior-modification strategies for abusive parents. But they also open the door to the development of medications, such as antidepressants, to boost brain serotonin to normal levels in both children and mothers, Maestripieri said.

"This suggests that children who early on have differences in their brain in terms of serotonin could be treated with some of these drugs and maybe these unwanted consequences could be avoided," he said.

Other scientists said that because monkeys are not humans, such findings should be interpreted cautiously. Nevertheless, there are enough genetic and biological similarities between the two species, they said, that the results may have important implications for people.

"We know that child abuse is bad for kids and that it's associated with all sorts of mental health outcomes," said University of Wisconsin psychologist Seth Pollak, who was not involved in the research. "But we don't understand how that experience seems to get under children's skin. This emphasis on serotonin seems to really help explain a lot of the behavioral problems that these children have as they grow up."

The findings add to a growing body of scientific evidence showing that nature and nurture interact to produce behavior. Environmental experiences can significantly influence how genes act in the body, affecting behavior, while an individual's genetic makeup can help determine the impact those experiences will have.

Researchers have already documented that humans who have low serotonin levels tend to be more anxious, depressed and impulsive, and earlier studies in rodents linked infant abuse and low serotonin.

Other studies have shown that among monkeys exposed to abuse as infants, those that have a shortened version of the serotonin transporter gene appear to be more vulnerable to experiencing low serotonin levels.

And recent brain scan studies found that people with the short serotonin gene have a more active amygdala, the brain's fear center. A person who has a heightened sensitivity to fear may see threats where none exist and lash out inappropriately.

The study by Maestripieri and his colleagues involved 15 baby rhesus monkeys from a colony housed at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Researchers noted which adult female monkeys displayed abusive behavior to their offspring and which females were nurturing mothers.

When these monkeys became pregnant again, the babies of the abusive mothers were given to the non-abusive females to raise and vice versa. Serotonin levels were measured from the infants' cerebral spinal fluid at birth and at regular intervals into adulthood.

Researchers found that infants raised under abusive conditions tended to develop low serotonin levels and become abusive mothers themselves, even though they were born to non-abusive mothers. Infants born to abusive mothers but raised by non-abusive ones retained normal serotonin levels and were not abusive.

"What's really happening to the infants raised by non-abusive mothers is that they're getting the right input into their brain," said J. Dee Higley of Brigham Young University, who participated in the study, which was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

The scientists suspect that low levels of serotonin may serve as a useful survival skill in a threatening situation by making primates more vigilant. But when the level is set low right from birth and stays there, it makes them impulsively aggressive.

"The big news in the new study is that certain patterns of maternal behavior have consequences for their offspring that are not only behavioral but biological and those consequences are possibly lifelong and they appear to be passed on to the next generation," said Stephen Suomi of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Why is always the mother's fault ??

Because the dad left?!

Jury convicts man in intoxication manslaughter case

Web Posted: 12/18/2007 05:34 PM CST

Elizabeth Allen
Express-News
A jury took 30 minutes Tuesday afternoon to decide that Ryan Gonzalez wasn�t sleepwalking, but was drunk, when he drove his Ford F250 the wrong way on Interstate 10 and killed a mother and child, seriously injuring the father.

Numerous witnesses had testified to seeing Gonzalez, who was 19 the morning of Nov. 4, 2005, driving toward town in the westbound lane of IH-10, narrowly missing car after car until he hit the one driven by David Baltazar, killing Noraima Baltazar, 23, and David Baltazar Jr., 3.

Family members had testified that Gonzalez was a lifelong sleepwalker. But when his blood alcohol level was tested two hours after the accident it registered at .10, over the legal limit of .08

The trial�s punishment phase is now beginning in Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner�s 399th District Court.

I'm kind of surprised that no one's posted on Jenson v. State here. (Though some might argue it was easy to miss.) Here's a link to the opinion.

I don't know if the CCA would grant review, but I would love to read a Judge Cochran opinion on it.

P.S.--And kudos to Kevin Keating who did the brief while managing to keep a straight face.

OMG!!! Hilarious! We had a similar case at a "picnic area." The officer was Officer Cox. I am not kidding.