Legal News

Delaware Lawmaker Charged With DUI

Police in Delaware have announced that state Rep. Brad Bennett has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Lewes police said they arrested Bennett early Sunday morning. The lawmaker told reporters Tuesday he has been dealing with a lot of personal issues over the past few months.

Bennett did not take questions from reporters, but did apologize to voters and his family. The Dover Democrat, who represents the 32nd District, said he hopes voters can move past what has happened.

“I hope these charges don’t overshadow my service to the community, including being a volleyball coach and volunteering with the boys and girls club through my local church,” Bennett said.

House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf released a statement saying, “Rep. Bennett needs to answer to this charge, and he will have his day in court. He is entitled to due process and we will let that judicial process proceed. If the charge is substantiated, the leadership in the House will look to see what is the appropriate action to take as a legislative body.”

Bennett was elected to office in 2008.

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Lawyer in Whitman flap mum on details, party ties

Republican Meg Whitman's former maid said Tuesday she's not a Democratic pawn in California's race for governor, but her attorney refused again to provide key details about her claims that Whitman employed her for nearly a decade despite knowing she was in the U.S. illegally.

Nicky Diaz Santillan, a Mexican who Whitman says used a fraudulently obtained Social Security card and California driver's license, dismissed claims by the GOP nominee that she was part of a Democratic smear intended to damage Whitman's standing with voters, particularly Latinos.

"I make my own decisions and I am not anyone's puppet," Diaz Santillan said in a prepared statement she read at the Los Angeles office of her attorney, Gloria Allred. "Nobody made me do it."

Allred, who has longtime Democratic ties and donated money to Brown when he ran for attorney general , has yet to disclose details about how she became involved in the case or disclose who, if anyone, is picking up the bill for her legal work.

Allred says Diaz Santillan was referred to her by another lawyer, whom she will not name. Allred didn't answer directly when asked if that lawyer had ties to Whitman's opponent, Democrat Jerry Brown, or his Democratic allies.

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Court strikes down parts of Ohio milk labels rule

Dairy processors can make claims that their products are free of a synthetic growth hormone, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday in striking down parts of the state's rule on milk labeling.

Key parts of the state's labeling rule violated First Amendment rights to commercial free speech, a three-judge panel of 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled.

The Organic Trade Association and the International Dairy Foods Association sued the Ohio Department of Agriculture in 2008 over a state rule on how consumers are informed about whether milk is made from cows that were given a synthetic hormone.

The trade groups argued that the rule is too restrictive. It prohibits composition claims such as "antibiotic-free" and "pesticide-free," violating their free speech rights and impeding interstate commerce, the groups argued.

The appeals court reversed a lower court decision on the free speech issue, concluding that the state's ban is "more extensive than necessary to serve the state's interest in preventing consumer deception." The appeals court agreed with a lower court ruling that the rule does not impede interstate commerce.

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CA officials ask appeals court to allow execution

  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Government lawyers have asked a federal appeals court to let California carry out its first execution in nearly five years.

Lawyers with the attorney general's office want the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a Tuesday ruling by a federal judge to block the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown.

The convicted killer had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 9 p.m. Thursday.

But U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel halted the execution, saying he needs more time to determine if California's new lethal injection procedure avoids imposing cruel and unusual punishment.

Government lawyers argue the new protocol ensures condemned inmates will suffer little pain.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge on Tuesday blocked what would have been California's first execution in nearly five years, giving a death row inmate who was two days from receiving a lethal injection a reprieve that could last months.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel canceled Albert Greenwood Brown's execution after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered him to apply different legal standards than the ones he used last week when he cleared the way for Brown to be put to death.

Fogel said he halted the execution scheduled for 9 p.m. Thursday because he didn't have enough time "to render a reasoned decision and permit adequate appellate review."

The judge said Brown's lawyers had "raised substantial questions of fact as to whether at least some of the deficiencies" in California's lethal injection process that prompted Fogel to halt California executions in 2006 remained.

Senate Dems try to punish firms that export jobs

 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate is headed toward a vote on a bill to punish corporations that send jobs overseas. Senate Democrats are trying to claim the loss of jobs overseas as a campaign issue just before Congress heads home for the November elections.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a procedural vote on the bill for Tuesday morning.

Under the bill, U.S. companies that close domestic plants and open new ones overseas would see their taxes increase. The bill would prohibit firms from taking deductions for business expenses associated with expanding operations in other countries.

Companies that import jobs to the U.S. would get new tax breaks.

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`Appalled' Pa. gov. shuts down reports on protests

 HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Information about an anti-BP candlelight vigil, a gay and lesbian festival and other peaceful gatherings became the subject of anti-terrorism bulletins being distributed by Pennsylvania's homeland security office, an apologetic Gov. Ed Rendell admitted.

Rendell, who claimed he'd just learned about the practice, said Tuesday that the information was useless to law enforcement agencies and that distributing it was tantamount to trampling on constitutional rights. In recent weeks, several acts of vandalism at drilling sites spurred the inclusion of events likely to be attended by environmentalists and the bulletins began going to representatives of Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry.

Feds say AZ violates rights of English learners

 PHOENIX (AP) - Federal investigators say the state is violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act by shortchanging thousands of students whose first language is not English.

Unless changes are made, the violations could lead to a loss of federal funding for state education.

The Arizona Republic reports one complaint alleges the Arizona Department of Education has reclassified "many thousands" of children as proficient in English even though tests indicate they aren't.

The second complaint says federal departments found the state eliminated two questions from its home-language survey in 2009.

The result was that students who are eligible for English-language services "are not being served because they are not being identified."

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Federal agents descend on egg farms for 2nd time

WASHINGTON (AP) - Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, the two Iowa farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive egg recall, have been visited by federal agents again.

Spokeswomen for the farms said the agents who arrived Tuesday worked for the Food and Drug Administration. Bob Teig, an assistant U.S. attorney for Iowa, and FDA spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy confirmed the presence of the agents, but neither would elaborate on what agency the agents work for or what they were doing there.

It is unclear whether this new investigation is the first step in a criminal probe. The FDA has jurisdiction to investigate crimes involving adulterated food, coordinating with the Justice Department.

The FDA concluded its investigation into the conditions of the farms Monday. Eggs from Wright County Egg and Hillandale have been linked to as many as 1,500 cases of salmonella poisoning, and the companies have together recalled more than half a billion eggs.

Austin "Jack" DeCoster, the owner of Wright County Egg, has paid millions of dollars in state and federal fines over the years for health, safety, immigration and environmental violations.

Hinda Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Wright, confirmed the presence of the FDA agents Tuesday. She said the company is continuing to cooperate with the government.

The reports released this week by the FDA show many different possible sources of contamination at both farms, including rodent, bug and wild bird infestation, uncontained manure, holes in walls and other problems that could have led to the outbreak. Positive samples of the type of salmonella linked to the illnesses have been found at both farms.

FDA officials said Monday they still cannot speculate on the cause of the outbreak but said the farms violated new egg rules put in place this summer.

No deaths have been reported due to the outbreak, but the number of illnesses - which can be life-threatening, especially to those with weakened immune systems - is expected to increase.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said this is the largest outbreak of this strain of salmonella since the start of the agency's surveillance of outbreaks in the late 1970s. For every case reported, there may be 30 that are unreported, the CDC said.

Thoroughly cooking eggs can kill the bacteria, but health officials are recommending people throw away or return the recalled eggs.

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Migrants turn to the sea to enter US illegally

The speedboat is about three miles offshore when a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent cuts the engine to drift on the current in quiet darkness, hoping for the telltale signs of immigrant smuggling - sulfur fumes or a motor's whirr.

"It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and the haystack is the Pacific Ocean," agent Tim Feige nutes before sunrise marks the end to another uneventful shift.

This is a new frontier for illegal immigrants entering the United States - a roughly 400-square-mile ocean expanse that stretches from Tijuana, Mexico, to Los Angeles. In growing numbers, migrants are gambling their lives at sea as land crossings become even more arduous and likely to end in arrest.

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John Montague Faces the Court of Public Opinion

By NY Securities Fraud Lawyer Jacob Zamansky.

Last June, I wrote on this blog (see below) about a double-standard when it comes to prosecuting fraudsters.  In the post entitled, “Two Americas and the Prosecution of Securities Fraud,” I detailed a case we filed against a financial advisor in Southern New Jersey named John R. Montague of Questar Capital Corporation, which is a subsidiary of the insurance behemoth, Allianz.

Mr. Montague’s working class, retirement age clients allege that he stole millions and ran a Ponzi-like scheme to defraud them.  Unfortunately, while law enforcement agencies have concentrated their efforts on criminals like Bernard Madoff and Kenneth Starr who bilked the rich and famous, while Mr. Montague has walked around a free man.  Apparently, fraudsters who prey on working class investors are low on the priority list.

In light of today’s Philadelphia Inquirer story, it is clear that Mr. Montague needs to be brought to justice sooner rather than later.

Two Americas and the Prosecution of Securities Fraud
by Jacob Zamansky on June 14th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Former presidential candidate  Senator John Edwards is hardly someone to be cited in a blog post about morality and fairness, but he was spot on in his rallying cry about there being two Americas.  This painful reality was driven home to me in recent weeks while pursuing a case in New Jersey’s Gloucester County, a predominantly working class area in the backyard of my hometown, Philadelphia.

The case involves a purported “financial advisor” named John Montague, who was a registered representative with Questar Capital Corporation. The FBI has been investigating Montague since at least last August and possibly longer, but there appears to be no movement in the case.  I represent some elderly investors who Montague defrauded for over $1 million. Given that there are likely many other victims of  Montague’s alleged wrongdoing, it’s quite possible that Montague’s misappropriation of funds is well in excess of what  has already been documented.

My firm has long been a source of leads and other information for prosecutors and law enforcement agents, however, the Montague case doesn’t appear to be a priority for the FBI. For example, the US Attorney’s office is handling the investigation of Kenneth Starr, a money manager whose well heeled clients reportedly included a litany of bold-faced names such as Al Pacino, Uma Thurman, and Neil Simon.  With miraculous speed, prosecutors managed to nearly double the $30 million originally thought to be allegedly swindled by Starr. “In the less than two weeks since Kenneth Starr’s arrest, this investigation has maintained its velocity,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara told reporters last week.

Furthermore, Bernie Madoff, who orchestrated the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time, was convicted and sentenced in less time that it has taken the FBI to complete its investigation of Montague. The receiver overseeing the liquidation of the fraudster’s enterprise is reportedly expected to recover more monies than originally anticipated - so much so that some vulture funds are already buying up the claims.

The Montague case isn’t the only example of the wheels of justice grinding to a near halt when working class investors are defrauded of their monies.  I represent some working class investors in Long Island who were defrauded by a convicted felon named Peter Dawson more than three years ago.  Although Dawson sits in prison, Bank of America, Washington Mutual and other financial institutions who enabled Dawson’s fraud have yet to be held accountable.

There is a disturbing lesson here: When it comes to prosecuting securities fraud and garnering restitution for investors, working-class people shouldn’t expect the same level of prosecution and recovery as their wealthy brethren.

For more information about the John Montague investigation visit Jacob Zamansky.