The Journal Sentinel's headline for this one, "Judge Beer's verdict for underage drinker goes flat on appeal," is at least as good as mine and more descriptive. (Thanks, Scott.) Judge James Beer did indeed rule in favor of someone caught drinking…
Here's a criminal-defense strategy you might not have considered: just get up and walk out. They certainly won't be expecting that. And probably for that reason, it's worked at least three times. At least temporarily. The first example I know of was…
Here's how this one starts: Robert Pierce, whose wife Catharine was involved in a topless gardening dispute in 2010, is set to stand trial on assault charges after police say he assaulted a Regional Transportation District security guard who told…
First the guy in the stall next to him turns out to be an undercover cop, then they won't let him withdraw his guilty plea, then he has to retire from the Senate, now they're all "you can't use campaign…
After I reported on the case of Donald Miller, the Ohio man who failed to convince a judge he should not be considered legally dead ("'No, You're Still Deceased,' Judge Tells Dead Man" (Oct. 10, 2013)), several people wrote in to…
Okay, it's not "breaking," but it does seem worth commenting on two recent cases in which officers did not open fire on a suspect. Of course most police-citizen interactions do not end in death, but lately it has at least started…
The polygamists were dressed like ninjas, but not armed like ninjas.
This case did not involve an angry hat-seller, but rather was an incident of domestic violence, which, I hasten to point out, is never funny except on the very rare occasions it is. According to WKRN in Nashville, a woman was arrested Saturday…
In May, South Carolina's Attorney General reported that the number of insurance-fraud cases in the state had reached an all-time high in 2013. The report (via Overlawyered) is mostly just numbers, but it does include two or three examples of now-closed cases,…
There are exceptions to any rule, of course, but the exceptions here are really quite limited. Perhaps you are also a U.S. marshal and are attending an informal gathering of U.S. marshals during which shorts-yanking horseplay might be expected. Or…