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Courtroom Antics & Trial Oddities

I always wondered if they'd accept the SCUM manifesto.

did it really exist? I always hoped so on the grounds that I liked the acronym. OK, so this is not a valid reason but......
 
SCUM Manifesto

I have a paper copy somewhere that I picked up in perhaps 1991, at a performance of Volcano Theatre Company's Medea Sexwar, which sort of combined the stories of Jason and the Golden Fleece an the SCUM manifesto.

Heady times.
 
outstanding....... you /must/ continue to preserve this!
 
This very odd case rung a couple of bells with me... back when I worked for the County Court there was an 'interesting' person who was just known as Dr Matthews, who essentially sued people for a living. He was considered a de facto vexatious litigant but couldn't be deemed one and barred from making further claims as he had to lose a certain number of cases before that could happen.

A phone ‘pest’ who repeatedly hassled emergency service, hospital and council staff had to be forcibly removed from court after being banned from making nuisance calls.

Andrew Matthews, 52, was given a criminal behaviour order (CBO) at Leeds Magistrates Court on Thursday following a long history of bombarding public service workers with time-wasting and abusive calls.

After telling District Judge Roy Anderson “We could become a double-act, we could be the new Morecambe and Wise”, Mr Anderson replied: “My agent will be in touch.”

YEP

So I had a google around and found this story from last year which does suggest a very similar modus operandi:

A LEEDS council tenant has won a £2,000 payout from the authority after an Ombudsman ruled his housing needs were not properly evaluated, and he was not treated appropriately considering his vulnerable health.

Andrew Matthews, known in official papers as ‘Mr B’, had complained that the council had unfairly applied a reduced preference to him when he asked to be moved and bid for properties, despite claims he was experiencing severe harassment and had very specific physical and mental health needs.

Mmmmmmmm. Curious.

YEP
 
Wigs.

A trainee of mine once found himself dragged into court for not paying his bills and attacking a Bailiff. He laughed and smirked his way through the proceedings. See, he found the judges wig hilarious.

Another trainee(the one who liked to flap his arms about) told us a tale once about his mothers boyfriend who had to attend court for some crime he had committed. The trainee couldn't resist the temptation to poke fun at the judge and his wig. The trainee got away with it and classed it has a major achievement in his life. He looked ever so proud and smug sharing it with us.
 

A Pennsylvania judge convicted of sending young kids to juvenile detention centers in return for cash has been sentenced to 28 years in prison, reported NPR. Good riddance to this guy.

Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking up to $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers in the state of Pennsylvania. The disgraced judge became known for doling out harsh sentences for small, petty crimes in order to receive payment for each kid sent. The scam became known as “kids-for-cash.”

Between 2003 and 2008, the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court tossed 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella because the judge violated the constitutional rights of the kids.

https://t.freespeech.org/text/pa-judge-who-sold-juveniles-jails-gets-28-years-prison
 
And I thought the Scientologists overdid it!
 
An Egyptian military court made a mistake by sentencing a four-year-old boy to life in prison for murder last week, the military has acknowledged.

Spokesman Col Mohammed Samir said the court should have sentenced a 16-year-old with a similar name instead.

Ahmed Mansour Qurani Ali was convicted along with 115 others in connection with riots by Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Fayoum province in 2014.

His lawyer had submitted documents proving that he was one at the time.

In a post on Facebook (in Arabic), Col Samir said Ahmed Mansour Qurani Sharara, 16, should have been sentenced and not Ahmed Mansour Qurani Ali.

It not clear what will now happen to the four year old.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35633314
 
Dow Chemical Co. said it agreed to pay $835 million to settle an antitrust case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death reduced its chances of overturning a jury award.

Dow, the largest U.S. chemical maker by sales, said Friday the accord will resolve its challenges to a $1.06 billion award to purchasers of compounds for urethanes, chemicals used to make foam upholstery for furniture and plastic walls in refrigerators.

The Midland, Michigan-based company disputed a jury’s finding it had conspired with four other chemical makers to fix urethane prices and asked the Supreme Court to take the class-action case on appeal. Scalia, one of the court’s most conservative members, had voted to scale back the reach of such group suits.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...a-s-death-in-settling-urethanes-case-for-835m
 
A convicted felon sang a soulful apology in the courtroom before his sentencing.

"Hello there, your honor," Brian Earl Taylor began, in the tune of "Hello" by Adele, "I want to say I'm sorry for the things that I have done."

According to MLive, he sang the ballad to Judge Darlene O'Brien in the Washtenaw County courtroom in Michigan last week. He also addressed the victim and his mother, telling them, "I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry."

"I'll try to be stronger in this life I chose," he promises in his Adele cover.

The 21-year-old was found guilty that day of unlawful imprisonment and carrying a concealed weapon, while other charges against him were dropped, according to the AP.

Before breaking out into song, Taylor told the courtroom that he intends to get a degree in business management at the Eastern Michigan University. He asked O'Brien to only sentence him to 36 months so he can finish his degree earlier, but O'Brien said the minimum sentencing for his crimes was 50 months.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...in-the-courtroom-before-sentencing/ar-BBqAFkr
 
I've always wanted to sit in court (not as part of the trial, just in the audience!) so I can leap out of my chair and shout - "That's a lie! A damn stinking lie!"...
 
The best thing about my courtoom experience (witness, not criminal before yous ask!) was the usher. As we walked through the doors and he walked me to the stand, he whispered a rude thing to me about the way the 'accused''s character witnesses were dressed.:) Mind you, he'd got to know us quite well as we had been held in this separate room where witnesses can go so they don't have to sit outside with the perpetrator's friends n family, and as the accused had philibustered for an entire day (representing himself) we'd had to go back a month later, and sit in the holding area for the best part of a second day, so all the staff were on first name terms with us by the time I had my five minutes in court...

It did make me feel a lot less nervous, though, someone trying to make me laugh seconds before I took the stand.
 
A court in the Indian capital has ruled that calling a husband "fat elephant" could be grounds for divorce.

The Delhi high court upheld a 2012 lower court order which had granted divorce, saying that taunting a spouse amounted to "mental cruelty".

The 35-year-old businessman weighs 100kg (220lb).

He said his wife regularly "humiliated him for being overweight and incapable of satisfying her sexual desires", Indian media reports said.

"The calling of names and hurling of abuses such as 'Hathi' [elephant], 'Mota Hathi' [fat elephant] by the appellant in respect of her husband - even if he was overweight, is bound to strike at his self-respect and self-esteem," India Today quoted Justice Vipin Sanghi as saying.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35910101
 
Now all I can hear is the Baby Elephant Walk!
 
An Egyptian court has sentenced a man who was killed by security forces three years ago to life in prison, in yet another case that illustrates the arbitrary nature of the Egyptian criminal justice system.

The court handed down the life sentence to Ahmad Abdel Wahed Safawy this week along with 170 other men accused of setting fire to a police station during a protest in the rural city of Ibshway south of Cairo in August 2013.

Safawy was shot in the stomach during the protest which took place the same day as security forces raided two sit-ins of supporters of ousted president Mohammad Morsi, killing at least 817 civilians.

http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2016/4/8/egyptian-killed-by-police-sentenced-to-life-in-prison
 
Judge resigns after 1,000 nude photos of male defendants found on his computer
The judge allegedly asked former defendants to serve 'community service' at his house

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A judge has resigned after investigators said they found thousands of nude photos of male defendants on his computer.

It is alleged that Cross County District Judge Joseph Boeckmann, 69, of Arkansas, exchanged sex for more lenient sentences.

The judge was suspended in November 2015, pending an investigation by the Arkansas Supreme Court, following allegations against him from former defendants. ...


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...efendants-found-on-his-computer-a7021861.html
 
I've heard of perverting the course of justice, but this etc.
 
"The calling of names and hurling of abuses such as 'Hathi' [elephant], 'Mota Hathi' [fat elephant] by the appellant in respect of her husband - even if he was overweight, is bound to strike at his self-respect and self-esteem," India Today quoted Justice Vipin Sanghi as saying.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35910101

I've never seen an overweight elephant.
It'd be like calling someone a fat whale - being large is rather in the job description.

I stand corrected:
http://wildlifesos.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/default/files/before rescue.jpg
 
Juror dismissed at start of Strasser-Hird trial after claiming visit from victim's ghost

Perhaps if they had inquired about the eventual verdict, participants in the Lukas Strasser-Hird homicide trial could have avoided more than a month of evidence.

Just one day into the multi-week trial on May 5, an unidentified female juror indicated to Justice Glen Poelman she was no longer able to remain impartial in the case.

In a letter she sent to the Court of Queen’s Bench judge, read into the court record by him, the juror explained she couldn’t go on after hearing Crown lawyer Marlo MacGregor outlining the prosecution’s case the previous day.

“I was presented with information the evening of May 4, 2016, which I feel directly impacts my ability to act as a jury member on this case with an unbiased opinion,” the juror said in her note to Poelman.

“I have a gift of being an intuitive and medium, and although I did not believe this gift would impact my ability to provide judgment on this case based solely on the facts presented before me in court … I am wrong,” she said.

The unnamed woman then told Poelman she could explain to him what a medium is if he wished.

“I can describe it as the ability to see, hear, feel, sense those that have died or whom are about to be born,” she said, before explaining what occurred to impact her impartiality.

“Last night the deceased presented himself to me and made me feel what he went through as he was being killed, the intensity of his injuries, and the location of his wounds,” she said.

“He also showed me information relating to those who beat, stabbed, and kicked him.

“I cannot get those horrible images out of my mind. I feel what he felt,” she explained.

“I hear what he heard. He kept repeating the phrase ‘I’m sorry, I am so sorry, please tell my family I am sorry.'”

The woman then explained she wasn’t asking Poelman to believe in the paranormal.

“Sir, I am not asking that you believe in what I experienced last night, but I ask that you believe in how this has affected me on a personal, mental, and physical level,” she said. ...

http://calgaryherald.com/news/crime...trial-after-claiming-visit-from-victims-ghost
 
A sad, nay, grim case. Real Social Justice warrior needed:
Penzance man in "a diabolical situation' as he faces being evicted from his home of 55 years
By cmjohnw | Posted: June 16, 2016

A Penzance man who faces being thrown out of the house he has lived in for more than 55 years says he is "at the end of his tether" and is considering going on a hunger strike to draw attention to his plight.

Peter Waverley moved into the house in Rosevean Terrace on his fourth birthday in March 1961 and has lived there ever since but he has now received a notice from Truro County Court saying he will be evicted on July 18.
Mr Waverly says he is disgusted" by failings in the UK legal system and feels has been left in a "diabolical situation" since the death of his mother in 2006.
He says that his mother wrote a will leaving his sisters the estate but setting up a Trust giving her son a life tenancy in the Rosevean Terrace property.

"Everything went OK for the first seven months but then my sisters sold the house to a Birmingham property company for £40k when it was worth more like £150k," he says.
Since then Mr Waverly claims he has regularly received reassurances from his legal advisers that the sale of the house had not affected his right to carry on living there.

More recently the property was sold again to a Virgin Islands-incorporated company called Haskell Properties Ltd for £60,000 and Mr Waverly has a letter dated October 23, 2015 from Eddisons Residential after they had been appointed as Haskell's managing agents which says: "We would like to confirm that your landlord (Haskell's) remains unchanged and your occupancy is not affected."

However after taking Haskell Properties to court last year seeking compensation over a hot water issue, Mr Waverly says he was told by the judge that he was a trespasser. :eek:
"The judge told me that I had no case because the sale of house ended the Trust."

After that ruling, Haskell's initiated proceedings to get Mr Waverly out of Rosevean Terrace, ending in the Notice of Eviction being issued on May 31.
Mr Waverly is now calling for the case to be referred to the Lord Chancellor's office for review.

"Haskell's bought the house very cheaply on the understanding that I was a tenant for life but is now exploiting legal inadequacies so that I am disinherited and made homeless.
"I am absolutely disgusted at the way the legal system has treated me – it is beyond belief that professional people can get you into a mess like this. :mad:
"Selling the freehold meant selling off the right for me to live in the house. I'm at the end of my tether– my mother wanted me to stay there but we now have the exact opposite of that happening.

"I'm seriously thinking of doing something drastic like going on a hunger strike because no one seems interested in resolving the situation."

http://www.cornishman.co.uk/penzanc...-of-55-years/story-29409974-detail/story.html
 
I expect he'd be grabbed by the ushers. (That's a legal term for 'short and curlies'!)

Great fun I dare say, the judge might well regard it as contempt of court. Could get one a taste of their hospitality.
 
I think the mother, if she had wanted him to live in the house for life, should have just left it all to him, the sisters obviously wanted money, if they sold it for well under the price, didnt really care about him after they got the dosh.

Does he pay rent to the new owners, cause if he does surely he has rights?
 
I expect he'd be grabbed by the ushers. (That's a legal term for 'short and curlies'!)

When I was a court usher, if anyone caused a disturbance like that they were ejected so fast their feet didn't touch the ground.
One of the best parts of the job. :evil:

I also liked having the court doors slammed in my face by recalcitrant members of the public. The doors were actually unslammable saloon-type fixtures so I'd place a DM'd foot in the way and bounce the door right back at them. Hilarious. :twisted:
 
When I was a court usher, if anyone caused a disturbance like that they were ejected so fast their feet didn't touch the ground.
One of the best parts of the job. :evil:

I also liked having the court doors slammed in my face by recalcitrant members of the public. The doors were actually unslammable saloon-type fixtures so I'd place a DM'd foot in the way and bounce the door right back at them. Hilarious. :twisted:
I like your style :twisted: ..
 
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