“Police dogs are being muzzled to prevent them from biting criminals. Instead of clamping their jaws around the legs of suspects, the dogs are trained to leap at their targets and disable them with a flying butt. … The policy follows a rise in compensation claims against forces from members of the public, and even serving officers, who have been bitten by police dogs. One force, in Greater Manchester, has paid out £59,000 in five years to 36 bite victims.” (Ben Leapman, Daily Telegraph, Oct. 15).
Posts Tagged ‘crime and punishment’
Police sued after man in 15-hour standoff kills self
Pennsylvania: “The widow of an upper Bucks County man [John Heckenswiler] who killed himself after a 15-hour standoff has filed a federal lawsuit against authorities, claiming they threatened and harassed her unstable husband so severely that he chose suicide over surrender. Deborah Heckenswiler retained an attorney with a record of success in suing police — John P. Karoly Jr. of South Whitehall, who has won multimillion-dollar settlements in brutality and misconduct suits against the Bethlehem and Easton police departments in recent years. … Police violated Heckenswiler’s ‘federally guaranteed right to be free from discrimination on the basis of disability’ because of policies and practices that encouraged negligence and excessive force in dealing with the mentally ill, the suit claims.” (Daniel Patrick Sheehan, “Widow sues police; Karoly takes case”, Allentown Morning Call, Oct. 14). More: complaint here in PDF format courtesy SuicideMalpractice.Net, a website critical of lawsuits seeking to blame third parties for acts of suicide.
“60 Minutes” to cover Duke lacrosse case
CBS writes to say that “60 Minutes” will air a major segment on the Duke lacrosse case this coming Sunday. According to the show description, “The other dancer in the Duke lacrosse rape case refutes a key part of the accuser’s story in an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley. He also spoke with the three players accused in the rape.” More here. Our earlier coverage: Oct. 11, Aug. 30, etc. Further: Durham Wonderland, which has exhaustively chronicled developments in the case, has a must-read summary (Oct. 16).
NY Times and the Duke lacrosse case, cont’d
UK: False rape accusations
If the charges of rape turn out to be bogus — worse yet, if they have led to the locking up of an innocent defendant later exonerated — should the accuser still enjoy the privilege of press anonymity? The case of Warren Blackwell, jailed for three years for a crime he never committed, vs. “Miss A”. (Carol Sarler, “Do fake rape victims have a right to anonymity?”, Daily Mail (U.K.), Sept. 13; Michael Horsnell, “Man jailed over sex attack clears his name”, The Times (U.K.), Sept. 13). More: accuser’s name is disclosed, prompting further controversy (Strange Justice, Oct. 23).
Great moments in parking enforcement
Note for future reference: never, never get a vanity license plate reading “NV” (as Californian Nick Vautier did, innocently picking his own initials). Or plates reading XXX, MISSING or NOPLATE. “NV was meter maid code for ‘not visible.’ … Los Angeles, for example, accused him of illegally parking a blue Ford, a silver Hyundai, a blue Chrysler and a blue Chevy truck, all with the same license plate.” (“California: Innocent Man Stuck With 100 Parking Tickets”, TheNewspaper.com, Sept. 17 (via Nobody’s Business); Steve Harvey, “Vanity Plates Backfire on Mr. ‘Not Visible'”, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 17).
Government paternalism
It can wind up breaking the hearts of actual parents, as in this gambling-SWAT-raid tale recounted by Radley Balko (Sept. 18).
“Death after two-hour ER wait ruled homicide”
In Waukegan, Ill., 49-year-old Beatrice Vance died of a heart attack after waiting two hours in a hospital waiting room. A coroner’s jury has declared her death a homicide. (Lake County News-Sun, AP, Chicago Tribune). Medical blogs are discussing: GruntDoc, MedPundit, KevinMD. Plus a discussion at Prof. Bainbridge’s. (cross-posted from Point of Law).
Second British gambling CEO detained
“The chairman of British betting company Sportingbet, Peter Dicks, was detained by American authorities in the early hours of today in what is being seen as a further crackdown on online gambling. The detention of Mr Dicks, 64, comes just two months after David Carruthers, the chief executive of BetOnSports was arrested in Texas on alleged fraud and racketeering charges. Mr Carruthers, who has maintained his innocence, was on his way to the company’s offices in Costa Rica.” (Miles Costello, “Sportingbet boss detained in US”, Times Online (UK), Sept. 7). For our earlier coverage, see my Times Online column on Carruthers’ arrest as well as Jul. 20 and Jul. 27.
ACS Panel on Habeas
I’m not convinced it was the most edifying panel on habeas corpus ever, but if you prefer to watch me on video than read me on the subject, the American Constitution Society has streaming video of the June panel “Limiting the Great Writ: Restrictions on Habeas Corpus.”