Interesting items: Haitian sex abuse defamation, executing the innocent
Two completely unrelated stories caught my attention today. The first draws a strange connection between a Haitian orphanage, clergy sex abuse and a Maine man with an axe to grind. The second considers...
View ArticlePosse Comitatus? How a military investigation set a child pornographer free
The Posse Comitatus Act is an 1878 federal law that prohibits the military from doing domestic law enforcement. The act doesn’t come up that much and defendants seldom actually win because of it....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Caius Veiovis: scary looking Mainer gets life on iffy MA murder
Caius Veiovis, FKA Roy Gutfinski Jr. Photo from AP Roy C. Gutfinski Jr. once lived in Augusta Maine and spent 7.5 years in the Maine state prison for aggravated assault. After his release in 2008, he...
View ArticleSupreme Court’s 1st case asks: can cop’s mistake justify a traffic stop?
This term, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments on October 6, 2014. The first case, Heien v North Carolina, presents a pretty cool criminal law issue; it considers whether a police...
View ArticleU.S. Supreme Court opens for business: 1st oral argument & new cases granted
Today at 10am the U.S. Supreme Court will hear it’s first oral argument of the 2014 term. The case is North Carolina v. Heien and it asks whether a police officer’s mistaken understanding of the law...
View Article46,000 prisoners to be resentenced under reduced Federal drug guidelines
The blog has been on accidental hiatus in recent weeks while me and some friends opened a new law firm. I’m back, and plan to be posting regularly once again. In April, the United States Sentencing...
View ArticleMissouri and Maine police use of force laws: when is deadly force justified?
A St. Louis grand jury has been considering evidence against Darren Wilson, the Ferguson Missouri police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown. The grand jury is expected to announce their decision...
View ArticleElonis v. U.S.: Is this the end for Maine’s terrorizing law?
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Elonis v. United States, a case considering the intersection between threats and free speech. The case centers on angry Facebook posts...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Portland’s Anthony Chiasson wins insider trading appeal in what could be a...
Anthony Chiasson from a 2013 Reuters File Photo As this paper recently reported, an appeals court has overturned Anthony Chiasson’s 2012 insider trading conviction. Chiasson is a Portland native turned...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Attorney Gary Prolman’s sentencing: sometimes 2 years in federal prison is...
Gary Prolman Attorney Gary Prolman was sentenced last week to 24 months in federal prison. The sentence was for laundering $177,000 in proceeds from a marijuana trafficking conspiracy. The money came...
View Article