Attorney Accused Of Robbery Jumps From Hospital Ledge

An Oklahoma City attorney accused of robbing an Edmond drug store last week jumped from the fifth floor of a metro hospital on Thursday, police said.

Robert Behlen, 50, had been in custody for several days, but authorities said they took him to the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in northeast Oklahoma City after he stabbed himself in the neck with a pencil. . . .

[A]lthough he was standing on a fifth-floor ledge, the fall to a rooftop below was only about three stories. According to authorities, Behlen fractured his pelvis and dislocated his hip. As of 6 p.m., he was in critical condition.

Behlen is accused of robbing the Barrett Drug Center at 410 W. Edmond Road. Witnesses said he was high, shaking and that he had a gun. . . .

[B]ehlen practices law with Behlen, Bentwood and Luther. A representative with the Oklahoma Bar Association told Eyewitness News 5 that Behlen is an active member in good standing.

Details here from KOCO Channel 5 via CNN.

Speeding Ticket Costs Man $275,000

At least for now, being pulled over by a Washington state trooper for driving 11 miles over the limit is costing a Canadian man some $275,000.

That's how much an unnamed 35-year-old British Columbia driver had in his car when he was stopped for speeding south on Interstate 5 on Friday--and that's how much authorities confiscated when he couldn't adequately explain why he was carrying the cash and where it came from, reports the Seattle Times. The freeway is the main north-south thoroughfare from Canada to California and the Mexican border.

The money--$276,640, to be exact--was in one of two suitcases in the car's trunk, the newspaper reports. The driver claimed the stacks of dollar bills it contained came from gambling winnings from successful play at 23 casinos in three different states, but couldn't produce receipts. The arresting trooper searched the car because the driver, although he provided a valid license, "struggled to tell the trooper where he was going and how long he had been in Washington," AP reports.

If a legitimate source for the money can be determined, it will be returned to the driver.

Details here from the ABA Journal.

Did CIA Kidnap Vacationer? It's a State Secret

At issue is whether the White House has the power to keep an alleged victim from seeking redress in US courts.

In December 2003, German citizen Khaled el-Masri boarded a bus in Germany for a holiday in Skopje, Macedonia. Instead of a restful vacation, the Muslim man of Lebanese heritage says he ended up in a Central Intelligence Agency isolation cell in Afghanistan as a suspected terrorist. He was released after five months of interrogation with no explanation justifying the action or apology if it was a mistake.

Now, nearly four years later, his lawyers are asking the US Supreme Court to examine whether the Bush administration has the power to prevent Mr. Masri from seeking recourse in American courts.

Masri's lawyers claim that the CIA kidnapped and tortured an innocent man. The government has never responded directly to the accusation. Instead, Justice Department lawyers asked a US judge to throw the case out of court to prevent disclosure of state secrets. He did.

At issue in El-Masri v. US is the government's use of the so-called state-secrets privilege. The judicial doctrine provides that some legal cases must be dismissed if the central evidence in the court battle would require disclosure of national security secrets. The Bush administration is using the same doctrine to block a string of legal challenges to other secret terror-war tactics, including warrantless electronic surveillance in the US.

Details here from the Christian Science Monitor.

The Case That the President’s Reach Exceeds His Grasp

Back in the 1970s and ’80s, in the wake of post-Watergate reforms, which put a brake on the executive power amassed by Richard M. Nixon, a small group of Republicans — including, most notably, Dick Cheney, who was then President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff and later President George H. W. Bush’s secretary of defense — abandoned traditional conservatives’ suspicion of concentrated government power and began looking for ways to expand presidential prerogatives. As Charlie Savage, a reporter for The Boston Globe, observes in his astute and harrowing new book, "Takeover,” those efforts made some progress during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush, and came to startling fruition under the current administration of George W. Bush and Mr. Cheney, now the vice president.

Indeed, Mr. Savage suggests that after Sept. 11 a “perfect storm of political pressures,” including a compliant, Republican-controlled Congress and a public fearful of further terrorist attacks, enabled an aggressive White House to expand vastly the powers of the executive branch and dangerously tip the constitutional system of checks and balances.

Details here from the New York Times.

Judge: 'This Egg Will Rot, I Kid You Not'

Before a judge renders an opinion, he might rely on case law or consider precedents established by the U.S. Supreme Court. But this week at the federal court in Concord, Magistrate Judge James Muirhead reached for his copy of Green Eggs and Ham.

Muirhead channeled Dr. Seuss after an inmate mailed him a hard-boiled egg to protest his diet at the state prison.

"No fan I am of the egg at hand," Muirhead wrote.

He continued: "I do not like eggs in the file. I do not like eggs any style."

Then Muirhead ordered the egg destroyed.

"Today! Today!" he demanded. "Today I say! Without delay!"

Muirhead could not be reached for comment, but Daniel Lynch, deputy clerk at the U.S. District Court on Pleasant Street, confirmed that the egg had been tossed.

Details here from the Concord Monitor.

Nebraska State Senator Sues God

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The defendant in a state senator's lawsuit is accused of causing untold death and horror and threatening to cause more still. He can be sued in Douglas County, the legislator claims, because He's everywhere.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers sued God last week. Angered by another lawsuit he considers frivolous, Chambers says he's trying to make the point that anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody.

Chambers says in his lawsuit that God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

The Omaha senator, who skips morning prayers during the legislative session and often criticizes Christians, also says God has caused "fearsome floods ... horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes."

He's seeking a permanent injunction against the Almighty.

Chambers said the lawsuit was triggered by a federal suit filed against a judge who recently barred words such as "rape" and "victim" from a sexual assault trial.

Details here from the AP.

Fired Judge Blames Elf for Court Mishaps

The Philippines Supreme Court has asked a fired judge who claims he is assisted by three elves to stop making threats of “ungodly reprisal.”

The court kicked Florentino Floro Jr. off the bench largely because of his belief in the supernatural, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). A medical clinic determined that the judge was suffering from psychosis.

Since then Floro has battled to get his job back, appearing on TV and winning converts who seek his healing powers. At the same time, a series of unfortunate incidents have befallen the supreme court justices or their families, including serious illnesses and car accidents.

Floro says the person to blame for the mishaps is one of the elves, "Luis," a "king of kings" who is an avenger. He told the newspaper that the elves help him predict the future, but he has never consulted them when issuing judicial decisions.

Details here from the ABA Journal.

Lerach to Plead Guilty, Serve 1 to 2 Years

It took seven years, but Los Angeles federal prosecutors are finally on the verge of putting famed plaintiffs lawyer William Lerach in federal prison.

Several people briefed on the case said Monday that Lerach and the prosecutors had agreed on a binding deal in which Lerach's lawyers would ask for a sentence of 12 months and prosecutors would seek 24 months.

If U.S. District Judge John Walter does not want to sentence Lerach within that range, the deal would be scuttled.

The agreement, said people familiar with the case, would have Lerach pay a fine of $8 million, and would get his former firm -- now known as Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins -- out from under the investigation.

Lerach announced late last month that he would be retiring. He left the firm on Aug. 29.

Lerach has been the target of L.A. federal prosecutors since 2000, when a Beverly Hills ophthalmologist aiming to lessen his prison sentence for insurance fraud told the government that he had been given illegal kickbacks by Lerach while serving as a lead plaintiff in securities class actions.

Details here from The Recorder via Law.com.

Federal Prosecutor Arrested In Child Sex Sting

DETROIT -- A U.S. Justice Department official has been arrested on suspicion of traveling to Detroit over the weekend to have sex with a minor.

John David R. Atchison, 53, an assistant U.S. attorney from the northern district of Florida, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Detroit Monday afternoon.

An undercover officer posed as a mother offering her child to Atchison for sex, according to police.

Prosecutors said Atchison flew from Pensacola, Fla., to Detroit on Sunday intending to have sex with the 5-year-old girl.

He was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

He is charged with enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.

Details here from ClickOn Detroit.

Gay Hanky-Pranky Spurs $1.5 Million Alum Letter Lawsuit

After what appears to be a college alumni prank, two New York men are suing their alma mater over an announcement in the school's newsletter stating that they were "life partners" who had been married. It added that they were leaders of a nonexistent group called the Gay Rights Brigade.

Ross Weil, 29, and Brett Royce, 28, college buddies and former New York housemates, filed a $1.5 million defamation suit against American University in Manhattan federal court on Aug. 30, claiming the school acted maliciously and with "gross negligence" by printing the announcement.

The Class Notes section of the spring edition of American Magazine, a quarterly publication for the Washington, D.C., university, asserted that Weil and Royce tied the knot in Boston on June 10, 2006.

The newsletter also trumpeted that Weil, a certified public accountant, was named "chief operating officer of the Gay Rights Brigade," a made-up group.

"No one contacted my clients to check the information," said lawyer Michael Kaufman, who represents Manhattan residents Weil and Royce. "Obviously, neither of my clients submitted it."

Details here from the New York Post.

Judge Denies $4.2M in Bonuses for Northwest Bankruptcy Lawyers

Bankruptcy lawyers for Northwest Airlines Corp. were denied $4.2 million in end-of-case bonuses Tuesday, with a judge saying their average rates of about $500 an hour had already provided adequate compensation.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper rejected a $3.5 million bonus for Northwest Airlines' lead law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, which ushered the airline out of bankruptcy in May. A law firm representing creditors, Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, was denied a $700,000 bonus.

Gropper said that for the attorneys to deserve a so-called fee enhancement, their work should have a remarkable result that couldn't be expected from lawyers being paid their regular fees.

A flight attendants union as well as the U.S. Trustee and a creditor-turned-shareholder objected to the bonuses, arguing they were unjustified. Those groups said Northwest's bankruptcy had not produced a remarkable result, since its share price has dropped 22 percent since the company emerged from court protection on May 31.

The Association of Flight Attendants also objected on the grounds that pilots and flight attendants took pay cuts and schedule changes to help the airline out of Chapter 11.

Details here from the AP via Law.com.

Former Partner Sues Firm, Partner for Alleged Groping at Party

Jackson & Campbell's Robert Rider Jr. concedes that he tapped another firm lawyer on the backside at a party, according to court papers.

But in a civil suit against Rider, 44, Elisa Eisenberg describes the incident as career-ending assault and battery. Eisenberg, 42, a former nonequity partner at the 50-lawyer firm based in Washington, D.C., is suing Rider (also a nonequity partner), Jackson & Campbell, firm president Richard Bryan and former president James Schaller.

In her complaint, filed in June in D.C. Superior Court, Eisenberg says an intoxicated Rider forcefully groped her at a party for a client in June 2006. Eisenberg, who declined to comment, further alleges that Jackson & Campbell created a hostile work environment by refusing to fire Rider, ultimately forcing her to resign the following January.

Eisenberg, who is represented by Lauri Cleary of Lerch, Early & Brewer, is not yet at another firm.

The firm, along with Bryan and Schaller (who both declined to comment), filed a motion to dismiss on Aug. 21.

Details here from Legal Times via Law.com.