Courtroom Presentations, Inc.

False Friend? High School Principal Resigns After Facebook Spying Allegation

cpi — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:00:05 +0000

An interesting social media incident played out recently at a high school in Missouri that ended with principal Louise Losos resigning and hundreds of students at Clayton High School wondering: Who is Suzy Harriston? Someone claiming to be "Suzy Harriston" from Clayton friended more than 300 people on Facebook, many of them from Clayton High School, without anyone really bothering to ask who Suzy was. On April 5, 2012, Chase Haslett, the former Clayton High School quarterback who had graduated in 2011, posted the following accusation on Facebook: "Whoever is friends with Suzy Harriston on Facebook needs to drop them. It is the Clayton Principal." According to St. Louis Today, the Suzy Harriston profile on Facebook quickly disappeared following Haslett’s claim. A day later, so did Losos, as she was immediately placed on a "leave of absence." A few weeks later, Losos resigned, reportedly as part of a deal that paid her $140,000. The deal included Losos’ agreement to take no legal action against the school district, the Columbia Daily Tribune reports. The Clayton School District stated only that her departure related to a "fundamental dispute concerning the appropriate use of social media." Why did Losos allegedly friend hundreds of…
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Thursday’s Three Burning Legal Questions

cpi — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:00:04 +0000

Here are today’s three burning legal questions, along with the answers provided by the blogosphere. 1) Question: Here are the important pieces of what I am calling "Operation Rob a Local Internet Cafe." Please let me know if I have forgotten anything: Visit an Internet cafe and hang around inconspicuously using its computers, checking Facebook, etc.; after browsing the Web for a bit, go to the cashier to pay for my usage time and assault the man at the register; demand all the money in the register; get the money and escape on a stolen motorcycle. Foolproof, right? Answer: You forgot to add "Log out of my Facebook account," which is key. (Digital Trends, Two men rob Internet cafe, forget to log out of Facebook prior to robbery) 2) Question: I am a police officer. We caught a man trying to steal a $20,000 diamond, and he tried to hide the evidence by swallowing it! That was several days ago, and while he has had several bowel movements in that time, the diamond has not yet seen the light of day if you know what I’m saying (don’t ask how I know this). We can only hold the alleged thief…
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Wednesday’s Three Burning Legal Questions

cpi — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:00:04 +0000

Here are today’s three burning legal questions, along with the answers provided by the blogosphere. 1) Question: I was at the local park and some dude started complaining that I was making too much noise and keeping his friend from sleeping. Then he picked up a pooper scooper and began swinging it at me, so I picked up my own pooper scooper to defend myself and engaged in a pooper scooper duel for about 30 minutes. Are you kidding me?? This has to be some kind of crime, right? Pooper scoopers can hurt! Answer: It must be some crime, you are right, but the blawgosphere seems to have no record of any prior "assault and battery by pooper scooper." (Seattle PI, En garde: 2 battle with pooper scoopers in Seattle park) 2) Question: I saw in your recent post that the woman who gave in to her boyfriend’s request to put his penis in a hot hair iron was not guilty of assault because he asked for it. Similarly, my friend is begging me to shoot him in his own leg because he wants to know "how it feels." Can I shoot him without getting in trouble with the law?…
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Life is an Open-Book Test … Unless You are a Juror

cpi — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:00:05 +0000

I’ve heard it said that "Life is an open-book test," and I believe that this has become even more true as the Internet, Google, smartphones and other fundamental features of the digital age have become ubiquitous. In the year 2012, when you want to understand something, or define something, or test something, or check someone’s background, you typically have instant access to the tools you’d need to do so. If you are truly interested, you will take the 10 seconds needed to get an answer or to learn how you can get an answer… unless you are serving on a jury. If you are serving on a jury, however, the normal rules of life in the 21st century no longer apply, and you must get each and every scrap of information needed to do your job directly from the proceedings in the courtroom so that your ultimate verdict is determined solely by the evidence. Need to look up what a key word means? Too bad — -put that cell phone down!! The Palm Beach Post has an interesting article on the rise of "juror mischief," i.e., jurors who revert to the "open book" mentality that governs most of their lives…
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In Which I Win Rudy Giuliani’s Yankees Tickets

cpi — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:00:05 +0000

Bracewell & Giuliani’s Basis Points blog is holding a haiku contest, with the winning entry receiving Rudy Giuliani’s "primo" Yankees seats (second row directly behind home plate) plus a gourmet meal in the Legends Club for the Yankees’ May 23 game against the Kansas City Royals. Before you start breaking out your award-winning lines of haiku from high school, you should know that the haiku that will win these tickets must be Yogi Berra-related: But here’s the curveball. We don’t want just any haiku. We want one that is clever, well-written and relates to Yogi Berra in some fashion, such as his career, a quote attributed to him, or a made-up quote for him (written, of course, in five-seven-five syllable haiku structure). Here is my entry. I look forward to seeing you all at the Legends Club in New York on May 23! Why I Love Being a Baseball Manager I cannot tell you What you don’t already know You don’t know nothing
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Monson Trial Ends in Conviction and With No Additional Lawyers Stabbed With Pencils

cpi — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:00:04 +0000

The trial of Joshua Monson ended yesterday when he was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder. Also of significance — particularly to the lawyer representing him in the trial — Monson was stymied from stabbing a fourth lawyer with a pencil. On three separate prior occasions in court, Monson had stabbed his (soon-to-be former) lawyer with a pencil. Detecting a trend, the court in Monson’s murder trial imposed stringent security measures for the trial, which thankfully proved to be effective. As discussed here, the court overseeing Monson’s trial required this "Hannibal Lecter of stabbing lawyers with pencils" to be seated at a separate table from his attorney, strapped to a chair with one hand additionally restrained, and wearing "an electric stun cuff that corrections officers can activate if he gets out of line." The Herald reports that the courtroom furniture was also rearranged in such a way as to keep the restraints out of the sight of jurors. The Herald also notes what must have been a harrowing moment just before the jury’s verdict was read, when Monson reached out to shake his attorney’s hand and thank him. This final exchange proved to be stab-free, as a corrections officer…
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Wednesday’s Three Burning Legal Questions

cpi — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:00:04 +0000

Here are today’s three burning legal questions, along with the answers provided by the blogosphere. 1) Question: I am the tourism director for a county in Florida. It struck me one day that it would be pretty awesome if our county owned a yacht, so without consulting anyone else I used $710,000 in county funds to buy us a yacht. Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell you, I gotta plead ignorance on this thing, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing is frowned upon — Answer: Enough, Mr. Costanza! (UPI.com, Official: Buying county a yacht was wrong) 2) Question: I got drunk and asked my girlfriend to use her hot hair iron to straighten my penis. After I badgered her enough she actually did it, which I now deeply regret. Did she commit an assault on me? Answer: You asked her to do it, so there is no assault here. (The Local, Squeezing penis with hot iron ‘not assault’: court) 3) Question: Quick question before I head out on a hunting trip in Texas: Can I kill a Bigfoot if I find…
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Tucker Max Explains ‘Why You Shouldn’t Go to Law School’

cpi — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:00:04 +0000

I have spent a decent amount of time through the years reading the various exploits of Tucker Max on his TuckerMax.com website. Don’t head over to TuckerMax.com if you are easily offended — indeed, the entire site is prefaced with the following introduction/warning: I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead. But, I do contribute to humanity in one very important way. I share my adventures with the world. They are known as … THE TUCKER MAX STORIES. After quickly attracting an audience to his unique brand of "fratire" years ago, Tucker Max branched out into writing books (three New York Times best sellers to date) and co-wrote and produced a movie based on his life. Prior to Max’s various successes in the media world, he attended and graduated from Duke Law School in 2001, but apparently did not practice law or work in a law firm other than a summer associate position at Fenwick & West. Perhaps predictably, the stint at Fenwick & West ended after a…
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Monday’s Three Burning Legal Questions

cpi — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:00:04 +0000

Here are today’s three burning legal questions, along with the answers provided by the blogosphere. 1) Question: We just ate dinner at a restaurant and the service was poor. Despite that, the restaurant is insisting that we pay a gratuity of 17 percent that was automatically added to our bill per the restaurant’s policy. We paid the bill and refused to pay the gratuity, but now they have locked the doors to the restaurant, won’t let us leave, and have called the police. Who is going to be in trouble when the cops get here — the restaurant or us? Answer: Tough question. You are not abiding by the restaurant’s policy but it also sounds like you are being held against your will. Are you sure you don’t want to just pay the gratuity and fight about it later? (Consumerist, Diners Say They Were Locked Inside Restaurant For Refusing To Pay Automatic Gratuity) 2) Question: I found a discarded lottery ticket in a garbage can here in Arkansas, and it turned out to be a million-dollar prize winner! "Finders keepers" applies here, right? Answer: No, finders keepers doesn’t fly in Arkansas, sorry. (The Associated Press, Woman Who Lost Ark. Lotto…
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Pit Bull Lovers Condemn Md. Court Holding as ‘Racism for Canines’

cpi — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:00:03 +0000

As discussed here, last month the Court of Appeals of Maryland held that pit bulls as a breed are "inherently dangerous," thus eliminating the need for a plaintiff injured by a pit bull to show that the owner had actual knowledge that the specific pit bull involved was dangerous. The holding was a dramatic departure from the longstanding "one free bite" rule in Maryland and most states that provides that if your dog bites and injures another person and has never done anything like that before, you are not liable for those injuries because the law assumes that you had no knowledge that your dog was dangerous. The Maryland court’s ruling has sparked a major backlash among dog rescue groups and, of course, pit bull owners, but also support from certain parents, groups and dog bite victims. CBS News reports that the Maryland SPCA disagrees with the ruling, and fears that it will lead to more pit bulls having to be "put down" instead of being adopted. The SPCA says it is nurture, not nature that gives the breed a bad reputation. "Every animal is an individual, so to say that all pit bulls are inherently dangerous is absolutely untrue,"…
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