• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Courtroom Antics & Trial Oddities

Death at Shotgun Willie’s delays trial about death at Shotgun Willie’s

The death of a lawyer at Shotgun Willie’s early this month compelled a judge on Friday to reschedule a trial concerning a different death at the Glendale strip club.

At a four-hour hearing, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Peter Michaelson granted a motion by attorneys for the club to delay the start of next month’s trial. The club had asked for the delay following the death of attorney Steve Long at Shotgun Willie’s on Oct. 1.

Long was one of several attorneys defending Shotgun Willie’s in the Randall Wright case. Another, Peter Middleton, urged Michaelson to delay the Nov. 7 trial for several months.

“The timing of this was just awful for everybody,” Middleton told the judge as he outlined the large role that Long, an experienced trial attorney, was to play at the trial. “We have been really struggling in the past three weeks.”

He added, “Mr. Long passed away at Shotgun Willie’s, I guess, which is kind of weird.”

Reid Elkus, an attorney for plaintiffs Dory Wright and the Wright estate, made the case that the wrongful death trial should not be rescheduled. He noted that the case is more than three years old and that Long was only one of several attorneys for Shotgun Willie’s.

“This case is now ripe for trial. It must move forward,” Elkus told the judge. He said that for his clients, “Justice delayed is not justice served.”

Randall Wright died at Shotgun Willie’s on May 2, 2019 after an altercation.

After several minutes of deliberations, in which he sighed deeply, held his head in his hands and rubbed his face repeatedly, Michaelson agreed to delay the two-week trial. He set a tentative trial date for March 20 but said two dates in January will also be considered.

An attorney for the Wrights, Donald Sisson, declined to comment after the hearing.

On May 2, 2019, Randall Wright, a 48-year-old Kroger executive, got into an altercation with another man that led to a chase through Shotgun Willie’s. Wright was then tackled by bartender Derek Hendricks and died a short time later. His family sued Hendricks and the club, claiming Hendricks used a chokehold. The defendants blame Wright’s bad heart.

The case has been highly contentious and could ultimately cost Shotgun Willie’s a large sum. In a court filing Oct. 14, the Wrights’ attorneys said the family has suffered between $3.6 million and $4.9 million in economic damages. That does not include nearly $1 million for pain and suffering or attorney fees, which are sure to be substantial.

Later in the hearing Friday, Michaelson overturned a previous order of his to let jurors take a trip to Shotgun Willie’s during the trial. The club’s attorneys requested the trip, believing it would give jurors a better view of the club than grainy surveillance video.

But attorneys for the Wrights argued there would be no way to replicate the sound and lighting of the night Randall Wright died. Michaelson agreed, calling his previous order “a mistake.”

A judge also decided that jurors can’t tour the Glendale strip club during the trial, reversing a previous order.

https://businessden.com/2022/10/24/death-at-shotgun-willies-delays-trial-about-death-at-shotgun-willies/

(Retrieved from behind paywall)

Shotgun Willie’s is one of the Denver area’s most prominent strip clubs
9.13R-Shotgun-Willies-1536x959-1[1].jpg
 
EnolaGaia said:
This genius insisted on serving as his own attorney, even after the judge's warnings that it wasn't a good idea. He then took the stand to testify on his own behalf, only to confess under oath to two additional felonies more serious than the ones he was already being tried for.

FULL STORY: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/...adden/65-a40af9c2-9809-4adb-aaec-7e36ad12b308
Click to expand...

A hearing room rather than a courtroom but details emerge over groups involved in the Capitol riot having a racism rift beforehand.

nfighting among some of America's most well-known far-right groups was revealed in a series of transcripts released by the congressional committee investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.

They had a shared love of Donald Trump, but not so much for each other. Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were among those who gathered at the Capitol that day, but leaders of the two groups criticised each other in sworn testimony. Their disagreements revolved around the involvement of white nationalists in groups and protest movements in the years before the riot.

Although many of former President Donald Trump's most fervent far-right supporters refused to engage with the committee, citing constitutional protections against self-incrimination, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes answered a number of questions over hours of testimony earlier this year. He said his group defended peaceful protesters and aided people of many different backgrounds. During protests in Berkeley, California, in 2017, when right-wing protesters clashed with anti-fascist groups, he said he told white nationalists to "take a hike".

"We would not let them in," he told the committee. "They could not get their moment of fame."

Contrasting Oath Keepers with Proud Boys, he said members of his group were "quiet professionals". And he accused Proud Boys of failing to adequately vet its members.

"Look, I don't believe the Proud Boys are white nationalists," he told investigators. "I think they've been sloppy and let white nationalists infiltrate their group."

Enrique Tarrio, a Florida man of Afro-Cuban ancestry who led the Proud Boys at the time of the riot, was also subpoenaed by the committee and described an argument that he had with Rhodes.

"I didn't like Stewart Rhodes. I still don't like Stewart Rhodes," he said during testimony. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64071724
 
For more on Stewart Rhodes, you can read about his family’s escape from his clutches here:

Stewart Rhodes' son: ‘How I escaped my father’s militia’​

The son of militia leader Stewart Rhodes spent years plotting to help his family escape from his father's control. Now that the elder Rhodes faces decades in prison, the rest of the family is rebuilding their lives.
Click to expand...
Continues at length.


 
An interesting admission by Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire owner of Fox News, has acknowledged some of the network's stars endorsed false claims the 2020 election was stolen.

But he denied all of Fox backed Donald Trump's baseless claims of widespread fraud after his election defeat.

Mr Murdoch's comments were revealed in a legal filing as part of a defamation lawsuit brought by ballot tech company Dominion Voting Systems. Fox News denies defamation - saying the hosts' words were taken out of context.

"Some of our commentators were endorsing it," Mr Murdoch said in a sworn deposition filed on Monday. Asked about certain on-air claims that echoed Mr Trump's, he said: "I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight."

Regarding the Republican former president's allegations of widespread voter fraud, Mr Murdoch said he was doubtful.

Dominion is suing Fox News for $1.6bn (£1.3bn), arguing the conservative outlet broadcast false and malicious rumours about voter fraud that harmed its business. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64794606
 
I thought Murdoch was dead? Who threw himself off of a boat? I believe Trump
 
hunck said:
For more on Stewart Rhodes, you can read about his family’s escape from his clutches here:

Stewart Rhodes' son: ‘How I escaped my father’s militia’​


Continues at length.
Click to expand...

The guy who inspired Stewart Rhodes.

A man whose video inspired one of the main leaders of the Capitol riots emigrated to the United States soon after the 2020 election. The BBC has found that he and his wife continue to encourage political violence on their social media accounts, a trend that worries extremism experts.

Three days after the 2020 election, while the result was still in doubt, a chemist from Belgrade was getting emotional. Sitting in front of a blank white wall, he turned on a video camera and unloaded his opinions about politics in the United States - a country he had never visited.

"Hello again from the Serbian guy," he begins. He apologises for getting emotional in a previous video: "I was afraid as hell. But now, when I keep seeing thousands of you doing the right thing, I'm not afraid anymore."

Then, in a presage of the events that transpired at the US Capitol two months later, he calls for attacks against American elections officials.

"They must feel fear when they're counting fake ballots. They must think about, are they going to get out of there alive? Yes, I'm calling you for violence," he says. "If that is the only way, who cares?"

The "Serbian guy" is chemist Aleksandar Savic. Of all the swirling conspiracy theories and emotive videos that circulated in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, somehow Mr Savic's clip went viral in right-wing circles, catching the attention of some of the people who later led the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021.

Chief among them was Stewart Rhodes, head of the Oath Keepers militia. The story of the video formed part of the evidence in Rhodes's recent trial, which resulted in a guilty verdict on a charge of seditious conspiracy.

According to court documents, Rhodes sent the video to a militia chat group, along with the message: "[W]e must now do what the people of Serbia did when Milosevic stole their election… Refuse to accept it and march en-mass [sic] on the nation's Capitol."

Rhodes told the group he was in "direct contact" with Mr Savic. The Oath Keepers were ready to follow the Serbian plan. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64170317
 
This guy should capon.

Having determined that a chain of Buffalo wings' boneless chicken wing product was formulated incorrectly, a determined chicken-food-products expert has filed suit claiming the composition of said "boneless wing" to be more akin to a "nugget." Additionally, the filer of multiple lawsuits, claims Wicked Fresh mouthwash to be not "natural" enough and has taken issue with Hefty and Kind over other pedantic insults.


A man filed a class-action lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings claiming that its "boneless wings" are actually made of chicken breast and are closer in composition to chicken nuggets than wings.
Click to expand...

Aimen Halim filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Friday to challenge what he calls "the false and deceptive marketing and advertising of Buffalo Wild Wings' Boneless Wings," according to court documents obtained by Insider.
Click to expand...

Halim has also filed at least three other class-action lawsuits — claiming that the "natural" label on Tom's Wicked Fresh Mouthwash and the "high in fiber" label on Kind granola are inaccurate and that Hefty shouldn't label its bags as "recycling bags" because they are not recyclable. The Hefty case was dismissed in August.
Click to expand...

https://boingboing.net/2023/03/13/b...g-enough-asserts-litigation-happy-pedant.html
 
ramonmercado said:
This guy should capon.

Having determined that a chain of Buffalo wings' boneless chicken wing product was formulated incorrectly, a determined chicken-food-products expert has filed suit claiming the composition of said "boneless wing" to be more akin to a "nugget." Additionally, the filer of multiple lawsuits, claims Wicked Fresh mouthwash to be not "natural" enough and has taken issue with Hefty and Kind over other pedantic insults.








https://boingboing.net/2023/03/13/b...g-enough-asserts-litigation-happy-pedant.html
Click to expand...
Now let's get old Halim on the case against this stuff;
id.png
 
This is weird. The story doesn’t really hang together & I’m thinking suspect reporting. It is the Mirror.

Man cancels eBay auction but man ‘winning’ at the time takes him to court in Germany where he’s ordered to pay £11,600 in total

Mike joined the hearing online but lost when the court ruled the Rome I Regulation, a contract law adopted by the EU in 1980 and retained by the UK after Brexit, made an eBay bid binding.

The court said this law superseded eBay’s policy, adding: “Both parties had made binding declarations of intention at the time the auction was aborted.”
Click to expand...
The report says he ended the auction 8 days before the end. This is fine under eBay rules up to 12 hours before end - you just have to give a reason. I’ve done it myself in the past with no comeback.

What’s unusual is most auctions span 7 days. I think longer ones are available though so maybe it was one of these. On the other hand maybe it’s a misprint & he ended the auction 8 hours before the end. This would break eBay rules & maybe open the door for the legal case.

If this turns out to be a binding verdict it’s going to fuck eBay somewhat. Their rules mean nothing in the EU.

Something’s weird about it.

The auction was for a Studer A80 2 track tape machine. Top quality analogue mastering machine from the 70s/80s. Still worth several thousand if in good condition.
 
A tribunal rather than a court but interesting.

An IT worker sued her boss for sexual harassment after believing his use of "xx", "yy", and "????" in an email asking for more information was a coded way of asking for sexual relations.

Karina Gasparova also claimed that when Alexander Goulandris renamed a work file with his initials 'ajg' it was an abbreviation of "A Jumbo Genital".

The employment tribunal at London Central court said Ms Gasparova's perception of events was "skewed".

Her claims were rejected.

Ms Gasparova was a project manager at the London office of essDOCS, a company that provides "paperless trade solutions". She took the firm to the tribunal claiming sexual harassment, discrimination and unfair dismissal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-65632912
 
ramonmercado said:
A tribunal rather than a court but interesting.

An IT worker sued her boss for sexual harassment after believing his use of "xx", "yy", and "????" in an email asking for more information was a coded way of asking for sexual relations.

Karina Gasparova also claimed that when Alexander Goulandris renamed a work file with his initials 'ajg' it was an abbreviation of "A Jumbo Genital".

The employment tribunal at London Central court said Ms Gasparova's perception of events was "skewed".

Her claims were rejected.

Ms Gasparova was a project manager at the London office of essDOCS, a company that provides "paperless trade solutions". She took the firm to the tribunal claiming sexual harassment, discrimination and unfair dismissal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-65632912
Click to expand...
She sounds like a bit of a chancer.
 
ramonmercado said:
A tribunal rather than a court but interesting.

An IT worker sued her boss for sexual harassment after believing his use of "xx", "yy", and "????" in an email asking for more information was a coded way of asking for sexual relations.

Karina Gasparova also claimed that when Alexander Goulandris renamed a work file with his initials 'ajg' it was an abbreviation of "A Jumbo Genital".

The employment tribunal at London Central court said Ms Gasparova's perception of events was "skewed".

Her claims were rejected.

Ms Gasparova was a project manager at the London office of essDOCS, a company that provides "paperless trade solutions". She took the firm to the tribunal claiming sexual harassment, discrimination and unfair dismissal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-65632912
Click to expand...
Something was going on here. There's a back story for sure, even if it's only that Ms Gasparova has some kind of mental health issue that makes her misinterpret abbreviations. Perhaps there's a language barrier.
 
escargot said:
Something was going on here. There's a back story for sure, even if it's only that Ms Gasparova has some kind of mental health issue that makes her misinterpret abbreviations. Perhaps there's a language barrier.
Click to expand...
The whole useage of xx and yy makes me wonder whether it was a query as to preferred pronouns or similar. Or a query as to birth sex or chosen gender. I'd be more annoyed at someone asking me if I'd been born female than I would if they asked me for sex...
 
ramonmercado said:
Karina Gasparova also claimed that when Alexander Goulandris renamed a work file with his initials 'ajg' it was an abbreviation of "A Jumbo Genital".
Click to expand...

Not a medical diagnosis, but this looks exactly like the kind of wild inference we've had posted on this site by paranoid schizophrenics.

It doesn't even work. 'A' genital (singular)?

But if one challenges it, one'll be invited to 'look at the pattern', not the specifics.
 

Black defendant gets new trial after judge said he ‘looks like a criminal’​


In a January 2020 hearing, U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III said he was “tired” of the case he was presiding over.

It had gone on for nearly two years by then, and the defendant, Leron Liggins, had moved to switch attorneys twice. During the hearing, when Liggins parted with his second attorney, Murphy said he was “tired of getting the runaround.”

“This guy looks like a criminal to me,” Murphy, who is White, said of Liggins, a Black man. “This is what criminals do.”

Though Murphy later apologized and said he could preside over Liggins’s trial fairly, an appeals court panel disagreed. In a 3-0 decision, the panel of federal judges ruled that Murphy’s remarks “could be understood to demonstrate clear prejudgment of Liggins’ guilt.” The decision vacated Liggins’s 2021 drug conviction and 10-year prison sentence, and he is set to receive a new trial.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/b...dge-said-he-looks-like-a-criminal/ar-AA1eV5xs

maximus otter
 
Here's a Guardian article about Coldplay's current legal travails.
I've quoted the particularly intriguing Spinal Tap-esque scenery problems. :rofl:


Coldplay and former manager sue each other for millions

Coldplay are locked in a legal battle with their former manager, with both parties filing competing claims in the high court seeking millions of pounds from the other.
...
Click to expand...
Expensive equipment was ordered or bought that was not fit for purpose, the papers allege, including a $9.7m video screen that was so big it could not be brought on tour as well as 16 bespoke stage pylons that cost €10.6m (£9m) and were found to be unusable.
Click to expand...
 

Georgia man is slapped with $1.4 million speeding ticket​

A Georgia man caught speeding down a freeway last month was slapped with a $1.4million ticket - and he says he was told he either had to pay it or come to court.

76621517-12636301-image-a-5_1697472107962.jpg


Connor Cato was driving through Savannah on September 2 when the Georgia State Patrol caught him going 90 miles per hour in a 55-mile-per-hour zone.

Cato expected to receive a 'super speeder' ticket, which is handed to anyone driving 35 miles over the speed limit - but nothing exceeding the $1,000 maximum fine.

Assuming it was a typo, he called the court, and alleges he was told he either had to pay or appear before a judge.

It was only later that the Georgia man learned the jaw-dropping $1.4million fine was just a placeholder.

The fee was generated by e-citation software used by the local Recorder’s Court that is automatically applied to 'super speeders."

A judge will set the real fine at Cato's court appearance.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...N-speeding-ticket-going-90mph-55mph-zone.html

maximus otter
 
The scales of justice.

A man has won the right to buy his late parents' farm after a judge dismissed claims of improper conduct involving stuffed fish.

Alister Cutts, 51, was offered Folds Farm near Fordingbridge, Hampshire, through a trust, the High Court heard. However, his family challenged the £4.2m price, adding that exchanges of stuffed fish between Mr Cutts and a trustee were a sign of favouritism.

The judge, Master Julia Clark, said the fish allegation was "unarguable".

Mr Cutts and his three sisters were all beneficiaries of the trust established by their parents Oliver and Susan Cutts, the court was told.
The trustees wish to sell the farm to Mr Cutts, with the proceeds then being split between the remaining beneficiaries.

However, a "deep rift" existed between the siblings, the judge heard.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-67996198
 
All 3 concerts starting 2 hours late suggests that fans were treated with contempt.

Two Madonna fans are suing the US singer for being late by more than two hours for a show last month in New York, according to court documents.

They state the show was meant to start at 20:30 EST on all three nights, but in each case it did not begin until after 22:30, ending around 01:00.
The case says they "would not have paid for tickets" had they known it would finish so late.

The BBC has asked Madonna, Live Nation and the Barclays Center for comment.

The case, brought by Michael Fellows and Jonathan Hadden, states that "many ticketholders who attended concerts on a weeknight had to get up early to go to work and/or take care of their family responsibilities the next day". They are suing promoter Live Nation and venue the Barclays Center for "false advertising, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair and deceptive trade practices".

Mr Fellows and Mr Hadden attended the show on Wednesday 13 December 2023, but the legal documents note that other nights at the same venue, on 14 and 16 December, also reportedly started more than two hours late.

"Defendants failed to provide any notice to the ticketholders that the concerts would start much later than the start time printed on the ticket and as advertised, which resulted in the ticketholders waiting for hours," the document state.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68027965
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top