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Attorney sanctioned for witness bribery, tampering
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama federal court sanctioned attorney Terrence Collingsworth for bad-faith conduct in connection with years of lawsuits against an Alabama coal company. He and others have accused the company of complicity in the assassinations of union leaders and the murders of hundreds of Colombians by a paramilitary group, but a federal jury found the attorney and his organization, IRAdvocates, engaged in witness bribery and tampering, obstruction of justice, money laundering, wire fraud and extortion. The lawyer must pay legal fees and costs incurred by the coal company and is barred from practicing in the Northern District of Alabama. He is not found in contempt of court.
Nokia prevails over $23M contract suit
CONCORD, N.H. — A federal court in New Hampshire entered judgment in favor of Nokia, where it is being sued by a communications company for allegedly failing to honor a promise that it would pay $23 million for “integration and licensing” of the communications company’s software. The suing firm “failed to prove promissory estoppel’s ‘injustice’ element as required by New Hampshire law.”
Religious Safety Act gets preliminary injunction
BROOKLYN — A New York federal judge granted a preliminary injunction halting the enforcement of the Religious Safety Act, which would have prohibited picketing, oral advocacy and literature distribution within 35 feet of entrances or driveways leading to houses of worship. The advocates challenging the law wish to advocate for immigrants as an expression of their Catholic faith, and because the law would give criminal penalties for even basic First Amendment activities such as wearing T-shirts with political messages, they are likely to succeed on their challenge.
Crypto fraudster banned from trading
MANHATTAN — A federal court in New York entered a consent order resolving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s suit against Celsius Network founder and former CEO, Alexander Mashinksy, who has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for defrauding consumers of $4.7 billion. He may not trade commodities or register with the CFTC again, even after serving his sentence.
Raw dough eater settles suit
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A man who was hospitalized after eating raw take-and-bake bread dough from a Colorado Springs Walmart settled his lawsuit against the store and the dough’s baker. He had neglected to bake the bread before eating it, resulting in a three-day hospital stay as the dough expanded in his stomach.
HIV comment was protected speech
PHOENIX — An appeals court in Arizona ruled that an ex-boyfriend’s social media post stating that he is HIV positive and identifying his ex-girlfriend, the mother of his child, as a former partner constituted First Amendment-protected speech. The lower court erred in determining that it was criminal harassment and issuing an order of protection against him.
Temu spying through ads?
CHICAGO — A federal court in Illinois declined to dismiss a class action accusing the operator of an online advertising platform, Index Exchange, of illegally intercepting a website visitor’s communications and sharing his personal data with Temu. The web user sufficiently alleges that the companies intercepted his communications through real-time advertising and “cookie syncing” processes and the alleged data transfers violated federal regulations restricting the transfer of Americans’ sensitive personal data to foreign adversaries.
Social Security theft convictions vacated
HARRISBURG, Penn. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated a criminal defendant’s convictions for theft by deception and receiving stolen property stemming because she concealed her grandmother’s death to continue receiving Social Security payments. The commonwealth’s 2020 charges were untimely because the final Social Security payment was made in November 2010 and there was no evidence defendant retained those funds within the statutory period.
Venezuelan pilot to get shorter sentence for trafficking
BOSTON — The First Circuit rejected a 135-month sentence for a Venezuelan pilot who was caught trafficking cocaine from Venezuela to Puerto Rico because the defendant merely piloted the plane. The sentence should be reconsidered in light of his mitigating role. Though he was told, at an encampment staffed by armed FARC militiamen, that “if he did the flight, [he] could return home,” the First Circuit declines to find error in the lower court’s finding that this was no “serious threat of physical injury.”
Pennsylvania Supreme cracks down on ‘skill’ games
HARRISBURG, Penn. — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed appellate rulings that had allowed so-called “skill game” devices to operate outside the reach of state gambling laws, finding that the machines qualify as “slot machines” under the state’s Gaming Act and are subject to criminal prohibitions on gambling devices. Since businesses relied on these prior decisions, the ruling is stayed for 120 days and law enforcement is barred from taking adverse action against operators during that period.
27 ecstasy pills found in detainee’s cavity
CHICAGO — A federal court in Illinois declined to dismiss civil rights and negligence claims brought by the guardians of a woman who suffered permanent cognitive damage after allegedly overdosing while in police custody. The family claims at least 16 Chicago police personnel were aware that at least 27 ecstasy pills were inside the detainee’s vagina, but nobody sought medical treatment or warned jail personnel before she went into cardiac arrest hours later. The allegations plausibly show that reasonable officers would have understood the obvious risk of overdose.