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Courtroom Antics & Trial Oddities

It might also be a legal maneuver to establish a stepping stone and clear a path toward suing the vehicle manufacturer. If the vehicle had been the subject or complaints or recalls about unintended acceleration or gear shifting the Hawkins family's attorney may be setting the stage for playing that angle.
 
There is a photo of what Gravity Diagnostics looks like on the link below. Looks like a) There would be a hell of a lot of surprise birthday parties going on and that could get old quickly and b) There should be a bit of space for one person who is "a bit weird". All IMO of course. :)

gravitydiagnostics.com/about-gravity/
Ye gods that looks like a horrific place to work. No personal space at all.
 
I know it's not unusual, but I honestly have no idea how any such harm can be quantified in monetary units.

If I have my teeth broken and a big dental bill plus lost wages, I can give you a pretty precise total.

Suffering an acute panic attack is worth... what?
You can think of it in terms of causing someone to have a heart attack.

Panic attack have the same symptoms as a heart attack, including the feeling you are immanently going to die and often including the pain running into your left arm. Minus the actual dying part, but still.

If you dont realize it's a panic attack you will be hospitalized based on the symptoms, as I was. I had my first one as an adult in a long time while working at a medical insurance place, and, since it had been a long time since I had had one, did not realize that was what was happening. Being a medical insurance place, the business's employee medical emergency response people were all nurses/doctors, and yes they had an ambulance service to take me to ER.

Even if you do realize you are having a panic attack, you still may not be able to stop the feedback loop of symptoms, as your body tends to release a massive amount of adrenaline. Think of it as chugging an entire case of energy drinks, and then trying to sit still in a long and important business meeting and not be affected.
 
Think of it as chugging an entire case of energy drinks, and then trying to sit still in a long and important business meeting and not be affected.

and then there is the shame, embarrassment, humiliation and the knowledge that your colleagues will never, ever view you in the same light again.
 
Cheeky monkey steals key evidence including potential murder weapon to halt trial

A murder trial has had to be postponed under bizarre circumstances after a monkey stole several pieces of key evidence before the trial reached court. -

The monkey was able to snatch bits and pieces of evidence in the Indian murder trial, with a total report of 15 separate missing items of evidence, including a knife.

During a pre-trial hearing, Jaipur police had to admit that the evidence packet had been snatched while in transport in 2016, around the time the murder had been committed.

Police also say that the officer responsible for the safeguarding of the evidence during transportation had since been suspended, retiring from the service and later passing away.

The case in question involves the killing of Shashikant Sharma, whose body was discovered three days after his family reported him as missing.

Key evidence including a knife believed to have been used by the suspects to murder Sharma were collected and placed in an evidence packet to await the court date, but the evidence was temporarily kept under a tree - :omg::dsist::headbang: - due to lack of space.

It was during this time, police say, that the evidence was snatched up by a monkey and fled the scene, with none of the evidence recovered since.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/monkey-stole-key-evidence-indian-26892579

maximus otter
 
A chainsaw?! This is moving into horror film territory!

A chainsaw was one of the weapons allegedly produced during a “horrible, unsavoury” incident last Sunday afternoon at an Ennis housing estate.

At Ennis District Court after viewing CCTV evidence of the flashpoint at Davitt Terrace, Cloughleigh at 12.30pm last Sunday afternoon, solicitor for three accused men in the case, Daragh Hassett, admitted the video “is not Bord Fáilte material for Ennis”.

On Wednesday, Mr Hassett told the court: “It is unsavoury. It is horrible and it shouldn’t have happened but my clients say they are not guilty of the charges before the court.”

Mr Hassett said the CCTV footage produced by the State doesn’t help the State case in the charges against his clients. Mr Hassett said the footage showed one man with an “active chainsaw”, who is not one of his own clients.

Objecting to bail against the three accused, Bernard McDonagh, 55, Thomas McDonagh, 21, and Michael McDonagh, 32, all of the unofficial halting site at Kilrush Rd, Ennis, Detective Garda Noelle Bergin said a feud between two sides of the wider McDonagh family is currently "volatile".

The charges against the three McDonaghs arise from the three allegedly going to the property of cousins at Davitt Terrace, Cloughleigh, last Sunday afternoon. Thomas McDonagh is charged with producing a slash hook during the incident while Bernard McDonagh and Michael McDonagh are each charged with producing a knife in the course of a dispute.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-40886318.html
 
This may sound like an urban myth but was reported in my local paper about 40 years ago:

... the Magistrate could not continue with the trial opening as no interpreter was available for the German-born defendant. Reluctant to re-schedule proceedings, he addressed the Public Gallery to determine if there was anyone present with a sufficient skill in German to translate questions to the defendant and relay answers. ___ ____ stood up and explained that he had learnt German in a POW camp and was willing to help. The man was lead down to the dock and instructed by the judge to ask the defendant for his name.

"Was is your name - eh Heinie ?!"

I believe he was fined £110 for contempt of Court.
 
This may sound like an urban myth but was reported in my local paper about 40 years ago:

... the Magistrate could not continue with the trial opening as no interpreter was available for the German-born defendant. Reluctant to re-schedule proceedings, he addressed the Public Gallery to determine if there was anyone present with a sufficient skill in German to translate questions to the defendant and relay answers. ___ ____ stood up and explained that he had learnt German in a POW camp and was willing to help. The man was lead down to the dock and instructed by the judge to ask the defendant for his name.

"Was is your name - eh Heinie ?!"

I believe he was fined £110 for contempt of Court.

That's an old one! Urban myth, as mentioned on these boards a while back.
 
How embarrassing - I saw it in newsprint and took it at face value. But I so wanted it to be true ! (guess there's a lesson in that).
 
Hundreds of cockroaches released inside Albany City Court
The court says four people were being arraigned for an arrest at the state Capitol, when a defendant began recording inside. The court say they were told to stop. That’s when a fight escalated and the roaches were released from plastic containers.

Clyanna Lightbourn, 34, now faces several charges, including disorderly conduct and tampering with physical evidence.

"What transpired is not advocacy or activism, it is criminal behavior with the intent to disrupt a proceeding and cause damage," the court said in a statement.
https://wnyt.com/albany-new-york-ne...es-released-inside-albany-city-court/6494068/

 
A bit more info...
Albany City Court was forced to close for an extermination on Tuesday after a protester released hundreds of cockroaches while tenant advocates, arrested at a good cause eviction rally in the state capital last month, were being arraigned, the Times Union reported.

One of several activists on hand to support the defendants was placed in handcuffs after allegedly trying to recover her phone, which court personnel had confiscated when she began filming the proceeding.

The videographer, tenant advocate Clyanna Lightbourn, was fired from her job at the state Senate Democratic Conference Services Office after the arrest, but was not identified as the one who released the insects, according to the publication. A later Times Union report indicated she intentionally created a distraction to give the insect-spreader an opportunity.
https://therealdeal.com/2022/06/08/...room-disrupting-tenant-advocates-arraignment/
 
This may sound like an urban myth but was reported in my local paper about 40 years ago:

... the Magistrate could not continue with the trial opening as no interpreter was available for the German-born defendant. Reluctant to re-schedule proceedings, he addressed the Public Gallery to determine if there was anyone present with a sufficient skill in German to translate questions to the defendant and relay answers. ___ ____ stood up and explained that he had learnt German in a POW camp and was willing to help. The man was lead down to the dock and instructed by the judge to ask the defendant for his name.

"Was is your name - eh Heinie ?!"

I believe he was fined £110 for contempt of Court.
That has to be an urban myth because when I was in Germany 45 years ago (I am not really that old) the germans all had to learn english in school. And any Germans that had moved to the UK or US after WW2 would learn english.
 
Man may have jail term increased after calling judge 'absolute helmet'

A man jailed for dangerous driving may have his sentence increased after calling the judge an 'absolute helmet'. Levi Cull was sentenced to 14 months in prison after admitting a number of driving offences, and sarcastically thanked the judge as he was taken down.

Judge Martin Walsh jailed Cull for 14 months and banned him from driving for three years, to which Cull replied: "Thank you very much you absolute helmet. In a bit mate."

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-jail-term-increased-after-24171178

:evillaugh:
 
Flinging feces at the judge failed to garner this felon any sympathy for being incompetent.
Judge recuses herself after dodging defendant’s flung feces in Harris County courtroom

Judge Te’iva Bell marched into the inmate holdover room Thursday to garner a guilty plea from a defendant being isolated to minimize contact with others. ...

The prosecutors and court reporter joined her as part of a last-minute attempt to prevent the defendant, Jaccorick Nwigwe, from getting too close to the judge or anyone else in the ceremonial courtroom because of an earlier incident. That incident happened Tuesday when Nwigwe asked visiting Judge Belinda Hill if she liked peanut butter, officials said. ...

He then chucked his feces at Hill in an apparent attempt to feign incompetency. The fecal matter spattered the bench and plopped onto Hill’s phone, according to photos of the aftermath. She dodged the flung dung, Bell disclosed in court.

“We’re doing the plea in there in case there’s a surprise,” Bell said.

The guilty plea resulted in a 20-year prison sentence with credit for time served. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...g-feces-in-harris-county-courtroom/ar-AAYhuVA
 
Point of principle!

An Indian man has won a case related to an overpriced railway ticket after almost 22 years.

Tungnath Chaturvedi, a lawyer, was charged 20 rupees ($0.25; £0.21) extra for two tickets he had bought in 1999. The incident occurred at Mathura cantonment railway station in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

A consumer court last week ruled in Mr Chaturvedi's favour and asked the railways to refund the amount with interest.

"I have attended more than 100 hearings in connection with this case," Mr Chaturvedi, 66, told the BBC. "But you can't put a price on the energy and time I've lost fighting this case."

Consumer courts in India specifically deal with grievances related with services. But they are known to be overburdened by cases and sometimes it can take years for even simple cases to be solved.

Mr Chaturvedi, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, was travelling from Mathura to Moradabad when a ticket-booking clerk overcharged him for the two tickets he had bought. The tickets cost 35 rupees each, but when he gave 100 rupees, the clerk returned 10 rupees, charging 90 rupees for the tickets instead of 70.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-62501688
 
Point of principle!

An Indian man has won a case related to an overpriced railway ticket after almost 22 years.

Tungnath Chaturvedi, a lawyer, was charged 20 rupees ($0.25; £0.21) extra for two tickets he had bought in 1999. The incident occurred at Mathura cantonment railway station in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

A consumer court last week ruled in Mr Chaturvedi's favour and asked the railways to refund the amount with interest.

"I have attended more than 100 hearings in connection with this case," Mr Chaturvedi, 66, told the BBC. "But you can't put a price on the energy and time I've lost fighting this case."

Consumer courts in India specifically deal with grievances related with services. But they are known to be overburdened by cases and sometimes it can take years for even simple cases to be solved.

Mr Chaturvedi, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, was travelling from Mathura to Moradabad when a ticket-booking clerk overcharged him for the two tickets he had bought. The tickets cost 35 rupees each, but when he gave 100 rupees, the clerk returned 10 rupees, charging 90 rupees for the tickets instead of 70.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-62501688

At a generous 10%, compounded annually for 22 years, he’s now the proud possessor of £1.71

I’ll bet that he’s dynamite at parties.

maximus otter
 
This child sexual abuse defendant chugged a bottle of water while his (guilty) verdict was read. He later passed out and died. Authorities are investigating WTF it was that happened here.
Man convicted of child sexual abuse dies after prosecutor says he ‘chugged’ liquid in court as verdict was being read

A Texas man died Thursday shortly after being convicted of child sexual abuse. The prosecutor said Edward Leclair was seen drinking a bottle of liquid before having a medical emergency.

“As these verdicts were being read, he chugged a bottle of water he had at counsel table,” Denton County Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck told CNN Friday. Leclair was facing five counts of child sexual abuse relating to the same victim ... , and had been free on bond until the verdict.

“Our investigator noticed him chug the water,” Beck said, saying it appeared cloudy. “He told the bailiff he might want to go check on him. The bailiff did. He was unconscious in the holding cell” ...

“Shortly after entering the holdover cell, he started vomiting, and emergency services were called,” Leclair’s defense attorney, Mike Howard, told CNN Friday.

Howard said his client had taken a “long drink from a water bottle” while listening to the verdict, but he did not know what was in the bottle.

Beck said “medical intervention” took place in the courthouse before Leclair was taken away by ambulance.

Preliminary records from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office say that Leclair was pronounced dead at the Medical City Denton hospital at 3:21 p.m. Thursday. An autopsy has been ordered ...
FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/12/us/texas-man-dies-drinks-liquid-court/index.html
 
This child sexual abuse defendant chugged a bottle of water while his (guilty) verdict was read. He later passed out and died. Authorities are investigating WTF it was that happened here.

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/12/us/texas-man-dies-drinks-liquid-court/index.html
2fb1f0ff1589fb03ffa4814f3aef0929.jpg
 
This child sexual abuse defendant chugged a bottle of water while his (guilty) verdict was read. He later passed out and died. Authorities are investigating WTF it was that happened here. ...

Update ... This local newspaper article provides more background info on the crimes for which Leclair was convicted. It also notes that the judge, defense attorney, and prosecutors are left with a legal conundrum regarding the proper disposition of a case in which conviction occurred but sentencing was still pending.

In any case, the investigation into Leclair's death is still in progress, and it remains to be seen whether this incident represents a suicide, a murder, or something else entirely.
New details emerge on man who died after hearing guilty verdict in Denton County

Edward Leclair’s defense attorney, Mike Howard, returned to court Friday morning to determine the next steps in his client’s case after Leclair died shortly after learning of his guilty verdict at the Denton County Courts Building off McKinney Street.

On Thursday afternoon, Leclair had been found guilty of five counts of child sexual assault involving one victim. Shortly after the guilty verdict was announced in the 16th District courtroom, he began chugging what appeared to be murky water ...

Jurors had been dismissed from the courtroom before the bailiff found Leclair. They returned Friday morning to determine the next move since Leclair, who had been found guilty, had died before he could be sentenced for his crimes. ...

It was an unusual situation, not just for the jurors but also for the defense, the prosecution and the judge, none of whom had ever experienced something like this before.

Normally, Howard said, if a defendant once convicted escapes before he is sentenced — also known as “volunteering absence” — the law would allow the prosecution to move forward with sentencing. In this case, Leclair might have killed himself if the water bottle, which the Denton County District Attorney’s Office said was collected as evidence, contains a toxic substance that led to his death.

So the question is: If Leclair killed himself, does his action qualify as a “volunteering absence” since, in a sense, he escaped justice — unless you believe in Dante’s version of the afterlife. ...

“This is something that obviously doesn’t happen very often,” Howard said. “ ... The question is whether the legal thing to do is … declare a mistrial and have [the charges] dismissed, or is there another possible way to proceed?” ...

As for what happens next, Howard said they were all going to research the law and determine the best way to move forward. The judge, he said, hasn’t set a date for when they need to return with what they’ve learned.

Howard said his gut reaction is the judge will declare it a mistrial and dismiss the case. ...
FULL STORY: https://dentonrc.com/news/new-detai...cle_02d7ab75-a394-5250-89ff-0a8a17bb938c.html
 
An arrogant git. He's had six years notice to demolish it and the jailing has been suspended twice already and even then allowed an extra 5 months to complete the demolition.

A man who built an unauthorised leisure complex in his garden has been jailed for refusing to demolish it.

Graham Wildin, from Gloucestershire, was jailed for six weeks for contempt of court, at a hearing in Cardiff. It follows a long-running planning dispute between the millionaire and Forest of Dean District Council. The construction, dubbed "Britain's biggest man cave", boasts a bowling alley, cinema, squash courts, casino and bar. It was built in 2014.

In 2018 the council obtained an injunction against Mr Wildin, from Cinderford, giving him until April 2020 to demolish the structure.

In committal proceedings last year, he was found in contempt of court for non-compliance with the injunction.

The High Court sentenced him to six weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, in July 2021, on the condition the complex was permanently stripped and decommissioned within 18 weeks.

An appeal was dismissed and Wildin was given until 10 March this year to comply with the order.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-62532542
 
She might not stop at court action to get money from Netflix.

A Mexican woman who served time in jail for her links to drug trafficking is suing Netflix and TV channel Telemundo.

Sandra Ávila Beltrán argues that the TV series Queen of the South is based on her life, her lawyer told the Mexican newspaper Milenio.

Ávila Beltrán says her story was used without her consent and is demanding that she be paid 40% of the royalties. As well as the TV series, there have been narco ballads written about her by Tigres del Norte and other bands.

Ávila Beltrán, 61, was infamous in Mexico even before the Netflix series was broadcast. Known as Queen of the Pacific, her life story certainly reads like the script of a telenovela - the hugely popular Latin American soap operas with many plot twists and turns.

Her uncle is Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, one of the founders of the powerful Guadalajara drug cartel.

At 21, she married a policeman who allegedly became corrupt and did deals with the local drug lords. He was assassinated shortly after their son was born.

Her second husband, a counter-narcotics police officer, was killed by an armed commando who stormed the hospital room in which he was recovering after surgery. He, too, was thought to have had links to drug cartels.

But it was her relationship with Colombian drug lord Juan Diego Espinosa that got the widow into trouble with the law.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-62724373
 
Here’s an unusual verdict

Three men have each been jailed for at least 29 years for the murder of their friend killed by rivals in a shootout.

The inquiry into Billy McCullagh's death saw his associates charged with murder - even though an opposing gang shot him, in north-west London in 2020.

Issa Seed, Adel Yussuf and Daniel Mensah were found guilty after prosecutors argued they opened fire knowing their rivals would shoot back.

It is thought to be the only conviction of its kind in England and Wales.
The Old Bailey heard Mr McCullagh was a member of a "violent street gang", which started a gunfight after travelling to the Stonebridge Estate in Harlesden in the early hours of 16 July 2020.

Mr McCullagh was accompanied by four friends and armed with two guns when they arrived in the territory of his "sworn rivals".

They had intended to attack the other gang in response to their friend being fatally stabbed the day before, but the vehicle they were travelling in was shot at several times when they arrived in rival territory.

Sentencing the men, Judge Philip Katz KC told them: "Billy McCullagh died a very public death, gunned down in a hail of bullets on the Stonebridge estate.

"I accept that the three of you never realised you would end up in the dock accused of Billy McCullagh's murder.

"But anyone in this country who willingly participates in a gun battle in the street should not be surprised if the law holds him accountable for any loss of life as a result.”

Detectives used phone, CCTV footage and forensic evidence to build their case, but could not identify the people who fired the gun or guns that killed Mr McCullagh.
 
Has that set a new precedent in regard to gang related crimes, or has it always been so?
 
Has that set a new precedent in regard to gang related crimes, or has it always been so?
It says

It is thought to be the only conviction of its kind in England and Wales.

So I’m assuming it does set a new precedent. Having been used once, it can be used again. I’m no expert on the law though.
 
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