You can read the entire interview here.

Transcription

DLN Front Mar13-15
3/12/14
2:21 PM
Page 1
News you cannot get anywhere else.
www.legalnews.com
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Vol. CXIX, No. 52
DAILY
BRIEFS
U..S Senate moves
on four Michigan
judge confirmations
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. Senate has voted
to end debate and take action on the confirmation of four of President Barack Obama’s nominees for U.S. District Court seats in Michigan.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Carl Levin says he's
confident that Tuesday’s decision will lead to the
Senate's approval of the nominees for the court in
the eastern district of Michigan, based in Detroit.
The confirmations votes will be for Matthew
Leitman, Judith Ellen Levy, Laurie J. Michelson
and Linda Vivienne Parker. They would fill all
remaining vacancies on the court.
Snyder signs bill
reforming Central
Perpetrator Registry
Gov. Rick Snyder Wednesday signed legislation reforming the Michigan Central Perpetrator
Registry and the policies and procedures concerning its operation.
The Michigan Child Protection Law requires
the state Department of Human Services (DHS)
to maintain the confidential internal registry of
confirmed child abuse and neglect perpetrators.
Under House Bill 4893, sponsored by state
Rep. Margaret O’Brien, the state must now notify a person being placed on the list via certified
mail with return receipt, and the person will now
have 180 days to request a hearing. A person
could not remain on the list if a subsequent
review of this decision fails to provide enough
evidence.
Additionally, except for very serious offenders, names would be removed from the list after
10 years. The law previously required all names
on the registry to remain until a registrant’s
death.
When there is evidence that an individual has
abused or neglected a child and the future risk to
the child is high, that individual's name is placed
on the registry. In some cases, the Child Protection Law does require certain names to go on the
registry regardless of risk.
FBA offering three
sessions on ‘Trial
Advocacy & Mentoring’
The Eastern District of Michigan Chapter of
the Federal Bar Association will hold its “Trial
Advocacy & Mentoring Program” March 27,
March 31 and April 1. The program is designed
specifically with “newer” lawyers in mind but
open to any attorney seeking hands-on experience
in fundamental litigation skills, working in tandem with judges and seasoned attorneys who will
offer valuable guidance on direct and cross examination, opening statements and closing arguments.
The 2014 Mentoring Program will focus on a
civil case trial from openings through the presentation of witness testimony and concluding with
final arguments. An introductory session will be
followed by two full-day sessions led by U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith and federal
judges from the Eastern District and held at the
Theodore Levin Courthouse.
The enrollment fee is $225 per person. Space is
limited. To register online, visit ww.fbamich.org.
For questions, call Brian Figot, at 248-594-5950
or send an email to [email protected].
LegalNews.com
INSIDE DLN
Abandoned Car Auctions ..............6
Business News .............................2
Calendar ...................................16
Classified Ads ..............................4
Crossword ...................................4
Legal Notices ...............................6
Mortgages ...................................4
75 Cents
Wayne Law’s Discover Law Day event inspires high school students
Thirty-one students from Cass Technical
High School visited Wayne State University
Law School on Friday, March 7, to learn
about becoming lawyers, despite any obstacles that might stand in their way.
The students, mostly ninth-graders, began
Discover Law Day hearing 2008 Wayne Law
alumnus Terrence Thompson talk about his
life – how he dropped out of high school,
became a thief and sold drugs, and then
turned it around to go to college and law
school and become the co-founder and CEO
of Networkingout LLC of Detroit.
Discover Law Day is about encouraging
African-Americans and other minorities to go
to law school and become part of the justice
system and the legal profession, which today
doesn’t reflect the growing diversity in society.
Felicia Thomas, director of recruitment
and enrollment at Wayne Law, spoke f irst
during the event, which was sponsored by
Wayne Law’s Admissions Off ice, WSU
GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and
Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) and
Wayne Law’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil
Rights.
“My job is recruiting law students,” she
told the teens as she introduced Thompson.
“The point of Discover Law is to increase the
number of attorneys of color. We are nowhere
near being represented in this profession, and
you can do just about anything with a law
degree.”
Being an attorney gave Thompson the
experience and knowledge to become an
entrepreneur, he said. He talked about growing up poor on the south side of Ypsilanti.
“Where I’m from, I didn’t know any
lawyers, I didn’t know any doctors, I didn’t
know any engineers,” he said.
His life changed dramatically when he was
in eighth grade and his mother and her four
children began living with a man who had
four children of his own.
The man’s treatment of Thompson became
a problem, and the boy was sent to live with
an aunt and grandmother. Feeling betrayed
and resentful, Thompson started doing poorly
in school for the f irst time in his life and
flunked the eighth grade.
Then, his aunt, who was supporting the
household, lost her job.
“So, we were poor as dirt,” Thompson said.
“Things really got bad for me.”
See STUDENTS, Page 5
Terrence Thompson, a 2008 Wayne State University Law School alumnus, speaks to students from Detroit’s Cass Technical High School as part of the law school’s Discover Law
Day on Friday, March 7.
MSC’s Learning
Center offers
summer program
State of Bankruptcy Court
Photo by John Meiu
The Bankruptcy Section of the Federal Bar Association of Michigan—Eastern District of Michigan Chapter presented a State of the
Bankruptcy Court Luncheon and Program on Wednesday, March 5, at the Atheneum in Greektown. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Chief Judge
Phillip J. Shefferly (center) gave the State of the Court address. Also participating in the event were (left to right) Bankruptcy Court
Judges Walter Shapero, Steven W. Rhodes, Marci B. McIvor, and Daniel S. Opperman.
ASKED AND ANSWERED
This summer, high school students can
experience what it’s like to argue a case before
the Michigan Supreme Court, thanks to a program being offered by the Court’s Learning
Center.
Rachael Drenovsky, the Learning Center’s
coordinator, explained the program features
participation in a “moot court,” in which participants prepare and argue a case.
Participants will meet and work with attorneys and other legal professionals; presenters
will include members of the judiciary, including justices of the Michigan Supreme Court.
The programs will be held at the Michigan Hall
of Justice in Lansing.
“Exploring Careers in the Law,” is open to
students entering grades 10 through 12 in fall
2014 and 2014 graduates. Participants meet
July 21 – 25 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each
day. The application deadline is May 30, 2014.
The registration fee is a $75 donation to the
Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society
Learning Center Fund.
Registration is limited to 22 participants,
selected on a first-come, first-served basis.
Contact Rachael L. Drenovsky at 517-3735027 or [email protected]. Applications and additional information are available
at http://courts.mi.gov/education/learning-center/Documents/MootCtApp2014.pdf.
BY STEVE THORPE
[email protected]
Megan Bonanni on Exotic Dancers’ Lawsuit Under FLSA
Last fall, a collective action lawsuit was been filed in Federal Court in Detroit by three current and former exotic
dancers against several Detroit adult night clubs owned by
Alan Markovitz for intentionally misclassifying exotic dancers
and other night club employees as independent contractors
instead of employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act
(FLSA) and Michigan Minimum Wage Law, refusing to pay
statutory minimum wages, unlawfully demanding a portion
of gratuities and unlawfully deducting employee wages
through rents, fines and penalties. Attorney Megan Bonanni,
a partner at Pitt McGehee Palmer Rivers & Golden, P.C., is
lead counsel for the plaintiffs. She has extensive experience
in employment law including class action litigation, collective
actions under the FLSA, disability and accommodations, sex
harassment, age discrimination, national origin discrimination, whistleblowers, pregnancy discrimination, wrongful and
retaliatory termination, employment contracts and severance
agreement negotiations.
Thorpe: At the heart of the suit is whether the exotic
dancers and other club workers in the lawsuit will be determined by the court to be employees or independent contractors.
What happens if they are found to be employees?
Bonanni: Under the FLSA the club is required to pay its
employees at least the minimum wage for each hour worked,
and time and one-half the minimum wage for overtime hours
(i.e. hours worked over forty in a workweek). Such a wage pay-
ment requirement would be in addition to any and all tips club employees receive from customers.
Thorpe: In his autobiography,
nightclub owner Alan Markovitz
talks about his epiphany as to a different way to hire and compensate
dancers by not paying them any
wages and having them pay the club
to work. What changed?
Bonanni: Throughout the country exotic dancers have successfully
challenged this industry-wide misclassification of their positions and
Megan
courts have held that such a classifiBonanni
cation is erroneous and that the
dancers are actually “employees,” as
defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). What changed
is the filing of this lawsuit challenging these illegal pay practices. The lawsuit alleges that the clubs intentionally use the
misclassification of independent contractor as a mechanism to
increase their profit margins at the expense of employee rights.
While lawsuits similar to this have been filed and settled across
the country, clubs change their pay practices only after being
directly challenged in a lawsuit — typically one brought by a
dancer who is no longer employed by the club.
Thorpe: A federal judge ruled in a similar case in New York
recently. Tell us about that.
Bonanni: In Hart v. Rick’s Cabaret, Judge Paul A. Engel-
mayer of the Southern District of New
York ruled that exotic dancers were
employees covered by federal and state
wage laws and not independent contractors. Much like this
case, Rick’s Cabaret did not pay the dancers any wages, took a
portion of the dancers’ performance fees, and imposed fines if
the dancers violated any club rules. The adult nightclub
claimed unsuccessfully that the dancers were not covered by
the minimum wage laws because they were independent contractors. The court determined the exotic dancers were employees, not independent contractors, because of the amount of
control the club exercised over nearly every aspect the dancers
work life. For example, the club required the exotic dancers to
work a certain number of eight hour shifts per week, wear certain footwear, set minimum dance tips, and required dancers to
check in and check out at beginning and end of shift and even
imposed fines for violating club rules such as chewing gum or
being late for a shift.
Thorpe: In addition to charging the dancers, you refer in
your complaint to “unlawful tip splitting.” What is that?
Bonanni: Under the FLSA gratuities are defined as pay over
and above the cost of goods or services rendered. Gratuities are
personal to the individual receiving the tip and generally should
not be taken from the individual or split among other employees. In this case, Plaintiffs allege that the clubs disregarded
wage and hour laws by engaging tip splitting which required
dancers and other club employees to split and share gratuities
given to them by customers with the club and other employees,
See ASKED, Page 5
Official Newspaper: City of Detroit • Wayne Circuit Court • U.S. District Court • U.S. Bankruptcy Court
■ Money Matters
Comparing open- vs.
closed-end mutual funds
■ Legal View
Page 2
Stand up and object. Now.
Trial lawyers face classic conundrum
Page 3
■ Law Life
New ABA book purports to provide
snappy comebacks to bad lawyer jokes
Page 15
DLN Front Mar13-15
3/12/14
2:22 PM
Page 2
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014
Page 2, The Detroit Legal News
Money Matters
CHRISTOPHER RABY, THE DAILY RECORD NEWSWIRE
Comparing open- vs.
closed-end mutual funds
Investors today have a wide
array of products available to
meet their investment needs.
One of the most vastly underutilized products is closed-end
mutual funds. Despite the continuously growing popularity of
open-ended funds and ETFs,
closed-end funds remain beneath
the radar of most investors.
Closed-end funds are quite similar to their larger open-ended
counterparts, with a few notable
differences.
Closed-end funds begin their
lives with an initial public offering, much like a typical common
stock, where shares of the fund
are issued. Once established, this
share amount typically remains
the same during the life of the
fund. However, share repurchases, rights offerings and other
transactions can alter this number.
The shares of a closed-end
fund are traded on an organized
exchange, such as the NYSE or
the AMEX, and can be bought
and sold at any point during the
trading day. Also, because they
are exchange traded, it is possible to engage in short sale and
margin transactions. Open-end
funds are created in a similar
manner; however, their shares
differ continuously because
shares are created and redeemed
when investors seek to enter or
exit the fund.
The price of an open-end
fund is calculated at the end of
the trading day and is determined by taking the total market
value of the portfolio and dividing it by the current number of
shares issued (NAV). The price
of a closed-end fund is determined solely by the supply and
demand in the markets. Because
of this, a situation arises where
the fund will often trade at a
price different than that of the
underlying NAV. When a fund is
trading at a value different than
its underlying NAV, it is said to
be trading at a premium (above
NAV) or a discount (below
NAV).
The exact cause of the existence of discounts/premiums has
been tested in both academic
and professional fields. Histori-
cal performance, fund manager
reputation, expense ratios and
investor sentiment are four reasons often given as explanation
in academic studies. Marketbased hypotheses include the
differing fee structures and lack
of incentive for brokers to recommend the funds to clients.
However, this much-debated
topic is still largely up in the air.
The fee structure of closedend funds also differs from that
of open-ended funds. Open-end
funds typically charge a 12b-1
fee to cover the costs of share
distribution as well as various
advertising-related costs. Since
closed-end funds do not have
share redemptions, they are
legally forbidden from charging
12b-1 fees. Additionally, openend funds often charge sales
loads associated with the purchase or sale (or both) of shares.
Closed-end funds have no
such charge; the only associated
costs are brokerage commissions
similar to the purchase and sale
of an individual stock. Lastly,
conflicting evidence exists as to
a difference in management
fees, but it largely appears that
fees are similar across both
types of funds.
The last major point to note is
that many closed-end funds
employ leverage to boost
returns. Because open-end funds
must often buy and sell shares of
the securities they hold based on
investor purchase and redemptions, it is impractical for openend funds to use any significant
amount of leverage. Also, the
use of leverage in municipal
closed-end funds is especially
unique since it is difficult for
individual investors to buy individual municipal securities on
margin in personal accounts.
Closed-end funds greatly trail
the popularity of open-end
funds, regardless of many significant advantages. In fact, a
recent Blackrock publication
noted the long-term outperformance of closed-end funds over
similar open-end funds. An
investment in a closed-end fund
is worth considering for
investors large and small. Nevertheless, the closed-end fund
industry largely remains a mystery to the every day investor.
—————
Christopher Raby is a senior
taxable f ixed manager/f ixed
income analyst for Karpus
Investment Management, a local
independent, registered investment advisor managing assets
for individuals, corporations,
nonprofits and trustees. Offices
are located at 183 Sully’s Trail,
Pittsford, N.Y. 14534; phone
(585) 586-4680.
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Business & Economy
Submit news & views to
[email protected]
WALL STREET
Buyback Boost
How investors may be getting fooled by stock buybacks
BY BERNARD CONDON
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — If you’re
puzzled why the U.S. stock market has risen so fast in a slowgrowing economy, consider one of
its star performers: DirecTV.
The satellite TV provider has
done a great job slashing expenses and expanding abroad, and that
has helped lift its earnings per
share dramatically in five years.
But don’t be fooled. The main
reason for the EPS gain has nothing to do with how well it runs its
business. It’s because it has
engaged in a massive stock buyback program, halving the number
of its shares in circulation by purchasing them from investors.
Spreading earnings over fewer
shares translates into higher EPS
— a lot higher in DirecTV’s case.
Instead of an 88 percent rise to
$2.58, EPS nearly quadrupled to
$5.22.
Companies have been spending
big on buybacks since the 1990s.
What’s new is the way buybacks
have exaggerated the health of
many companies, suggesting
through EPS that they are much
better at generating profits than
they actually are. The distortion is
ironic. Critics say the obsessive
focus on buybacks has led companies to put off replacing plant and
equipment, funding research and
development, and generally doing
the kind of spending needed to
produce rising EPS for the long
run.
“It’s boosted the stock market
and flattered earnings, but it’s
very short term,” says David
Rosenberg, former chief economist at Merrill Lynch, now at
money manager Gluskin Sheff.
He calls buybacks a “sugar high.”
Over the past five years, 216
companies in the S&P 500 are
just like DirecTV: They are getting more of a boost in EPS from
slashing share count than from
running their underlying business,
according to a study by consultancy Fortuna Advisors at the request
of The Associated Press. The list
of companies cuts across industries, and includes retailer Gap,
supermarket chain Kohl’s, railroad
operator Norfolk Southern and
drug distributor AmerisourceBergen.
The stocks of those four have
more than tripled, on average, in
the past five years.
Companies insist that their
buybacks must be judged case by
case.
“The vast majority of our
shareholders are sophisticated
investors who not only use EPS
growth but other important measures to determine the success of
our company,” says Dar ris
Gringeri, a spokesman for
DirecTV.
But Fortuna CEO Gregory
Milano says buybacks are a waste
of money for most companies.
“It’s game playing — a legitimate, legal form of manufacturing
earnings growth,” says Milano,
author of several studies on the
impact of buybacks. “A lot of
people (focus on) earnings per
share growth, but they don’t adequately distinguish the quality of
the earnings.”
So powerful is the impact, it
has turned what would have been
basically flat or falling EPS into a
gain at some companies over five
years. That list includes Lockheed
Martin, the military contractor,
Cintas, the country’s largest sup-
plier of work uniforms, WellPoint,
an insurer, and Dun and Bradstreet, a credit-rating firm.
It’s not clear investors are worried, or even aware, how much
buybacks are exaggerating the
underlying strength of companies.
On Friday, they pushed the Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index to
a record close, up 178 percent
from a 12-year low in 2009.
“How much credit should a
company get earning from share
buybacks rather than organic
growth?” asks Brian Rauscher,
chief portfolio strategist at Robert
W. Baird & Co, an investment
company. “I think the quality of
earnings has been much lower
than what the headlines suggest.”
And it could get worse.
Companies in the S&P 500
have earmarked $1 trillion for buybacks over the next several years.
That’s on top of $1.7 trillion they
spent on them in the previous five
years. The figure is staggering. It is
enough money to cut a check
worth $5,345 for every man,
women and child in the country.
There is nothing necessarily
nefarious or wrong about buybacks per se. It doesn’t seem that
managements are trying to cover
up a poor job of running their
businesses. Even without factoring in a drop in share counts,
earnings in the S&P 500 would
have risen 80 percent since 2009.
The problem is that many
investors are pouring money
willy-nilly into companies doing
buybacks as if they are always a
good thing, and at every company.
A fund that tracks companies
cutting shares the most, the PowerShares Buyback Achievers Portfolio, attracted $2.2 billion in new
investments in the last 12 months.
That is nine times what had been
invested at the start of that period,
according Lipper, which provides
data on funds.
For their part, the companies
note there are all sorts of reasons
to like them besides EPS.
WellPoint points out that it has
increased its cash dividend three
times since 2011, a big draw for
people looking for income. Cintas
says that it’s timed its buybacks
well, buying at a deep discount to
stock price today. And DirecTV
says investors judge it also by revenue and cash flow, both of which
are up strongly.
What’s more, companies seem
to genuinely believe their shares
are a bargain and they’d be remiss
for not buying, though their
record of choosing the right time
is poor.
The last time buybacks were
running so high was 2007, right
before stocks fell by more than
half.
There are signs the next $1 trillion in buybacks for S&P 500
companies could also prove illtimed. Stocks aren’t looking so
cheap anymore. After a surge of
nearly 30 percent last year, the
S&P 500 is trading at 25 times its
10-year average earnings, as calculated by Nobel Prize winning
economist Robert Shiller of Yale.
That is much more expensive than
the long-term average of 16.5.
Many investors assume shrinking shares automatically make
remaining shares more valuable.
The math is seductive. A company
that has $100 in earnings and 100
shares will report $1 in earnings
per share. But eliminate half the
shares and the same $100 is
spread over 50 shares, and EPS
doubles to $2.
But that doesn’t make the
shares more valuable.
Shares aren’t just a claim on
short-term earnings. They are an
ownership stake in an entire company, including R&D programs
and its capital stock — the plants,
equipment and other assets needed to boost productivity long into
the future. Critics say the lavish
spending on buybacks has
“crowded out” spending on such
things, which is at its weakest in
decades.
“It’s just like your car depreciating or your home depreciating
— you have to invest,” says
Gluskin Sheff ’s Rosenberg, “The
corporate sector has barely preventing the capital stock from
becoming obsolete.”
One result: U.S. productivity,
or output per hour, increased just
0.5 percent last year, a pitiful performance. It has grown by an
average 2 percent a year since
1947.
If not reversed, history suggests stocks will suffer. In a 2010
study, Fortuna’s Milano found that
stocks of companies that spent the
most on buybacks vastly underperformed stocks of those that
spent the least on them — at least
over five years.
It’s unclear whether the kind of
investor who dominates stock
trading now cares about the longterm, though. Buybacks are one
of the few sure-fire ways to push
a stock higher in the short term,
and investors these days are very
short term.
They “don’t care what happens
in three or five years,” laments
Rauscher, the Baird strategist.
“The market has become less of
an investor culture, more of a
trading one.”
BUSINESS
TECHNOLOGY
Competition is fierce, rivals are entrenched
fortune to Credit Karma?
Small companies seek out big deals Will Google bring good
BY JOYCE M. ROSENBERG
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — When a small business can
boast having big clients like Wal-Mart and Procter
& Gamble, their peers often want to know how they
did it.
The truth is there’s no magic that gets a small
business a deal with big companies. It takes good
old-fashioned pavement pounding.
The makers of Arctic Zero started small, selling
their no-fat, ice cream-like frozen dessert to natural
food stores and independent grocers in Southern
California. But they wanted to get in national
chains. It took a year and a lot of traveling to get
into Whole Foods. It took four years to get on WalMart’s shelves.
“It was just a lot of hustling, a lot of hard work,
pitching, going in and talking,” CEO Amit Pandhi
says.
Many small business owners dream of selling to
big companies. But the competition is fierce. Rivals
can include entrenched national players or fastgrowing upstarts. Corporate buying departments
often aren’t interested in a product without a successful track record. To get in, small businesses
have to convince big companies to give them a
chance.
To get its pints into Whole Foods, Arctic Zero
visited many individual stores. Although big retail
chains buy nationally or regionally, sometimes local
store managers can buy some products on their
own.
“We literally had to go store by store, region by
region,” says CEO Pandhi, whose company is based
in San Diego. Finally, in about a year, Arctic Zero
made it to a Whole Foods’ freezer case.
Pandhi’s pitch includes bringing samples and
showing off his sales figures. Usually, it takes two
to three conversations before a manager says yes.
After their first Whole Foods win, Pandhi and
other Arctic Zero executives got the dessert into
about 250 stores.
Whole Foods is looking for products that meet
its standards for natural ingredients and that stand
out from the pack in their food category, says Elly
Truesdell, the company’s Northeast regional buyer.
Companies also have to be willing to help promote
their products — for example, with in-store demonstrations — so shoppers will know there’s a new
product on the shelf.
While they courted Whole Foods, Arctic Zero
also pitched Wal-Mart and grocery chain Kroger.
In 2011, Kroger not only said yes, it decided to
immediately stock all its 2,200 stores. Arctic Zero
had to sign up more manufacturers to handle the
demand.
After Arctic Zero’s success with Kroger, WalMart followed, putting the frozen dessert in 2,300
stores and then expanding to 2,500, Pandhi says.
NETWORKING WORKS
Linda Boasmond networked her way into contracts with Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive
and Citgo for her company, Cedar Concepts. The
Chicago-based business makes chemicals used in
consumer products like shampoos and conditioners
and in oil drilling and the manufacture of airplane
parts.
When large companies need small batches of
chemicals, typically several million pounds, they
turn to businesses like Cedar Concepts rather than
massive producers. Belonging to networking and
industry groups like the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and the American Cleaning
Institute helps Boasmond connect with purchasing
executives. She also attends events and conferences
held by the Women’s Business Development Center,
a program to help women-owned businesses, and
the National Minority Supplier Development Council, an industry group that links minority firms with
big corporations. She attends about 100 events a
year.
“People are still going to want to put a face on a
company, especially when we’re talking about a
multimillion-dollar contract,” Boasmond says.
And even then it takes patience. It took three
years for Cedar Concepts to get its own contract
with Procter & Gamble. It landed that deal after first
being a subcontractor to a company that had a direct
contract with the consumer products company.
USING A MIDDLEMAN
Supermarket beer aisles are dominated by
megabrands like Budweiser and Miller. There are
hundreds of craft beers vying for a place on the
shelves including Back Forty Beer Co., a Gadsden,
Ala.-based brewer that got its start in local restaurants and bars.
To get into Wal-Mart and big supermarkets like
Publix, Back Forty linked up with 18 wholesalers
that have good relationships with large retailers.
During a sales call, Wilson shows Back Forty’s sales
figures. Later, the wholesaler follows up.
“We’ve found ourselves in the unique position to
open doors because of our wholesalers,” president
Jason Wilson says.
It took about two years from its founding for
Back Forty to make it into some Publix and WalMart stores in Alabama. In another year, it expanded into more stores in the South.
But once in, it’s not always smooth sailing.
Sometimes stores carried Back Forty beer and then
stopped ordering. Poor sales figures can lead to
rejections. But Back Forty has weathered the challenges and is now in Target, Kroger and WinnDixie, another grocery chain.
And this winter, Wilson got a call from a wholesaler who had good news: Sam’s Club wanted Back
Forty, and in time for the Super Bowl.
“We had a lot of high-fives, handshakes and
hugs — and then back to work,” Wilson says.
Company plans to double workforce
BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
Google is betting that good things
will happen to Credit Karma, an
online service that provides consumers with free copies of the
credit scores that def ine their
financial reputations.
Credit Karma is getting Google
Inc.’s endorsement and expertise
as part of an $85 million investment announced Wednesday.
About half of the money is
coming from Google Capital, the
Internet company’s recently created vehicle for investing in maturing startups. The remaining funds
are being provided by Tiger Global and two of Credit Karma’s earlier investors — Ribbit Capital and
Susquehanna Growth Equity.
With the latest infusion, Credit
Karma has now raised $118.5 million since the San Francisco startup launched its service in 2008.
Credit Karma plans to use the
incoming money to more than
double its current workforce of
110 employees and introduce
more products “that are going to
be disruptive,” CEO Ken Lin said.
Without providing specifics,
Lin said Credit Karma’s next product will be unveiled in about two
months and will offer free access
to a service that consumers traditionally have had to pay to get.
Credit Karma already has made
it easier to obtain a free snapshot
of the personal credit scores that
determine loan rates and borrowing limits. The scores, based on
the loan-payment histories compiled by major credit-rating agencies, traditionally have been only
provided when people apply for a
loan or sign up for other financial
services that eventually charge
fees.
Everyone who sets up an
account at Credit Karma can get
free looks at their credit scores
once a week. Credit Karma
obtains its main credit score
through TransUnion, one of the
three major U.S. credit-rating
agencies along with Experian and
Equifax. The service also lists a
score based on another formula
used by all three agencies and
another number that most auto and
home insurers rely upon to evaluate how likely their prospective
policyholders are to file a claim.
The free insights are attracting
a steadily growing audience. Nearly 21 million people have set up
free accounts on Credit Karma, up
from about 9 million a year ago,
Lin said.
Credit Karma doesn’t store the
Social Security numbers required
to open an account, but it does
create f inancial prof iles of its
users to tailor the marketing pitches that bring in most of its revenue. Virtually all the ads are for
credit cards, loans and other financial services.
Google also analyzes personal
data to determine which ads to
show users of its services, but Lin
said Credit Karma isn’t sharing
any information about its members with Google.
Credit Karma plans to draw
upon Google’s knowledge about
marketing and expanding online
services to accommodate larger
audiences. David Lawee, a Google
Capital partner, is joining Credit
Karma’s board of directors.
This is Google Capital’s third
major investment in the past
month. Online education service
Renaissance Learning received $40
million, and online real estate site
Auctions.com got $50 million. Last
year, Google Capital was among
the investors that backed online
polling site SurveyMonkey and
online loan broker LendingClub.
Google Capital is aiming to
invest about $300 million this
year. It’s an offshoot of Google
Ventures, a fund that the company
set up five years ago to invest in
startups during their early stages.
Google Ventures so far has invested in 225 companies, including
home-device maker Nest Labs,
which is now wholly owned by
Google Inc. after being bought for
$3.2 billion earlier this year.
DLN Front Mar13-15
3/12/14
2:22 PM
Page 3
Legal View
PETER VIETH, THE DAILY RECORD NEWSWIRE
Stand up and object. Now.
A lawyer trying a case constantly is on guard. When something wrong gets said, he needs
to object. Right away. But he
has to keep an eye on the judge.
She may be impatient, wanting
to move on. The lawyer doesn’t
want to anger her or risk looking
bad in front of the jury.
A new decision from the
Supreme Court of Virginia
demonstrates what a dilemma
this softshoe act can pose.
The high court could not
agree whether a criminal
defense lawyer had done enough
to bring his protest to the attention of the judge. The majority
suggested the lawyer had timidly
allowed his objection to be
swept into oblivion by an impatient judge, but two members of
the court said that interpretation
ignores the real world of the
courtroom.
For trial lawyers, the case displays a classic conundrum:
Something has happened in
court that might be unfair to
your client. It might be significant, but you may not even know
the details of what occurred.
The judge is eager to move
on, to get the case to the jury. To
undo a mistake, or get a clear
ruling for appeal, you are going
to have to stop the proceedings,
go over what happened, and
articulate a clear objection. You
rise to speak.
On the other side of the
courtroom, the opposing lawyer
puts on a show of exasperation.
The judge, too, seems irked.
“Can’t we deal with this later?”
he says.
The words you use to answer
that question will be examined
under a microscope if the case
goes up on appeal.
Case involved prosecutor’s
closing argument
v.
In
Maxwell
Commonwealth, a Feb. 27 decision incorporating two cases, the
lens was focused on a lawyer in
a Portsmouth courtroom. His
client was Vincent Rowe,
accused of grand larceny. The
prosecutor was wrapping up the
case for the jury.
The prosecutor made what
sounded like an improper argument. He said circumstantial
evidence in the case created an
inference of guilt requiring evidence to overcome that inference. He then added, “And, as
you know at this point, the
defense has offered no evidence.”
Two sentences later, the state
lawyer finished and sat down.
The defense lawyer rose and
addressed the judge.
“Actually, before I make my
argument, there is a motion I
would like to make outside the
presence of the jury,” the lawyer
said.
The judge responded, “We’ll
deal with it when the jury goes
out to retire.”
“Very well,” said the defense
lawyer.
With those words, the lawyer
lost his chance to argue in an
appeals court about how the
prosecutor may have unfairly
shifted the burden of proof to
the defendant, the Supreme
Court majority held.
Court decides three appeals
on ‘contemporaneous objections’
The decision in the Rowe
case is matched with another
case in which a criminal defendant gets a second shot at appeal
because a judge reviewed and
answered a jury’s question outside the presence of the defendant and his lawyer.
And, in a separate opinion
released Feb. 27, the court overturned a witness’s contempt conviction because she was denied
an opportunity to object before
being sent to jail.
All three appeals involve a
state statute and court rules governing the need to make a “contemporaneous objection” to preserve an issue for appellate
review.
In the Rowe case, the defense
lawyer urged a mistrial after the
jury left to begin deliberation.
The judge denied the motion.
That motion came too late for
appeal, said the Court of
Appeals of Virginia.
Before the Supreme Court,
Rowe’s lawyers argued he
should be allowed to raise the
issue of the prosecutor’s prejudi-
cial closing argument since the
trial judge blocked his effort to
object in time to correct the
harm.
Rowe pointed to a statute, Va.
Code § 8.01-384, that says an
appeal is not foreclosed “if a
party has no opportunity to
object to a ruling or order at the
time it is made.”
The Supreme Court majority
agreed with the state, however,
that Rowe failed to make an
objection with the “requisite
specificity.”
“Rowe’s counsel’s colloquy
with the court makes it clear that
he had the opportunity to make
his objection known to the court
and articulate more clearly the
action he desired the court to
take and that the action needed
to be taken before the jury
retired,” wrote Justice LeRoy F.
Millette Jr. for the majority.
Dissent urges focus on ‘real
world’
The lawyer did not need to
explain his motion, countered
Justice Donald W. Lemons, in a
dissent joined by Justice William
C. Mims.
“[T]here has to be a recognition of real world trial practice,”
Lemons wrote. “Everyone
acquainted with trial practice
would know what this motion
was — a motion for a mistrial
based upon the Commonwealth’s
Attorney’s reference to the
defendant’s failure to present
evidence.”
Lemons defended the attorney’s acquiescence.
“Defense counsel had to
decide whether to argue with the
judge in front of the jury and
demand that his motion be heard
before the jury retired, or to
abide by the trial court’s ruling.”
Arguing with the judge right
before the case went to the jury
would risk alienating the jurors,
Lemons said.
“Civility and decorum on the
part of defense counsel should
not be equated to a waiver of the
defendant’s fundamental right to
appeal,” Lemons said.
Falls Church defense lawyer
David Bernhard said he agreed
with Lemons.
“This is a habitual problem
for lawyers. They want to be
civil, like the Supreme Court
wants them to,” Bernhard said.
The contemporaneous objection rules, however, require more
aggressive behavior.
“You have to jump up and
object and be in their face,”
Bernhard said.
Lawyers need to be ready to
take some heat, agreed Steven
D. Benjamin of Richmond, who
said the court is offering a lesson for defense lawyers.
“Look, you’ve got to stand
up. You’ve got to show some
spine. Criminal defense attorneys can’t be wimps,” Benjamin
said. “You can state your objection and your grounds with clarity and with respect, but clearly
you must speak.”
The Supreme Court may have
overlooked the distinction
between witness testimony and
closing argument in analyzing
the Rowe case, Bernhard said.
With witnesses, you have to
object before the next question.
With a closing argument, the
cure can come later, he said.
Defendants win in two
appeals
Rowe was the only loser
among the three criminal defendants arguing about contemporaneous objections this term.
Derrick Maxwell will have
his Frederick County conviction
for unlawful wounding reviewed
by the Court of Appeals because
a judge handled a jury question
without giving Maxwell or his
lawyer any opportunity to consider the situation.
The jury question came while
Maxwell’s lawyer was getting a
bite to eat at her office, just 10
minutes away from the courthouse.
The lawyer had asked to be
excused for a meal after the jury
retired to consider the case.
After the jury convicted
Maxwell, recommending a fiveyear sentence, the judge
acknowledged there had been
jury questions while Maxwell
and his lawyer were away from
court. The judge said the jury’s
questions could be answered by
the jury instructions and he had
See LEGAL VIEW, Page 5
The Detroit Legal News, Page 3
In the Courts
[email protected]
NORTH CAROLINA
Judge’s decision is latest twist in Army sex case
Judge allows defense lawyers
to negotiate a new plea deal
with the military prosecutor
BY EMERY P. DALESIO
AND MICHAEL BIESECKER
Associated Press
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) —
The trial of an Army general
accused of sexual assault moved
into uncharted legal ter ritory
Tuesday when the judge dismissed the jury to allow the
defense time to hammer out a new
plea deal with the military.
While the highly unusual decision gives Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A.
Sinclair a second chance to negotiate the dismissal of the most
serious charges, he appears certain to face an inglorious end to a
nearly 30-year career spanning
service in three wars. His lawyers
said it could take weeks to finalize an agreement.
Experts in military law said
Judge Col. James Pohl is seeking
a just and innovative solution for a
courtroom situation that doesn’t
fit prior case law.
“No one has ever seen anything like this before, but it seems
like the right thing to do,” said
retired Maj. Gen. Walt Huffman, a
Texas Tech University law professor who previously served as the
Army’s top lawyer. “This case was
already unusual in so many
respects.”
Judge Pohl reviewed newly
disclosed emails Monday and said
he found the appearance of
“unlawful command influence” in
Fort Bragg officials’ rejection of a
plea bargain with the general in
January. He declined to dismiss
the charges outright, but allowed
Sinclair’s lawyers to negotiate
with Army officials not previously
involved with the case.
If they fail to reach a plea deal,
the trial would resume. But with
the jury sent packing, it’s unlikely
that could happen quickly.
The jury of five two-star generals was seated last week, traveling from as far away as Korea and
Alaska. They appeared confused
as Pohl sent them home, saying
they may or may not be asked to
return.
“Sometimes there are twists
and turns you can’t anticipate,”
Pohl told the jurors.
Sinclair, 51 and the former
deputy commander of the 82nd
Airborne Division, is accused of
twice forcing a female captain to
perform oral sex on him in
Afghanistan in 2011 during a
three-year extramarital affair. He
has admitted to adultery, which is
a crime in the military, but denied
assaulting the woman.
Believed to be the highestranking U.S. officer ever courtmartialed on sexual assault
charges, Sinclair appeared upbeat
as he left court Tuesday, joking
with the military police guarding
the door.
Lead defense attorney Richard
Scheff said his client would not
agree to plead guilty to any
charges involving sexual assault
or any charges that would require
him to register as a sex offender.
“He did not sexually assault
anybody,” Scheff said. “He did
not threaten anybody. He’s not
maltreated anybody. We’d love to
resolve the case. But if we can’t,
we look forward to our day in
court and his vindication.”
Lt. Col. Robert Stelle, the lead
prosecutor, declined to comment.
Last week, Sinclair pleaded
guilty to three lesser charges
involving adultery with the captain and improper relationships
with two other female Army officers. Those charges could bring
15 years in prison. A trial then
began on the remaining charges,
with a potential sentence of life in
prison.
Now, with Tuesday’s decision,
the defense may ask Pohl to withdraw Sinclair’s guilty plea in favor
of whatever new deal can be
reached. Sinclair also faces
charges he defrauded the Army of
more than $4,000 in travel
expenses to visit his mistress.
The latest upheaval in the case
comes as the Pentagon is under
heavy pressure from Congress to
fight sex crimes in the military.
On Monday, the U.S. Senate
approved legislation cracking
down on misconduct.
Eugene R. Fidell, a former
U.S. Coast Guard lawyer who
now teaches at Yale Law School,
said revelations about how Sinclair’s previous plea offer was
handled will help lawmakers who
want to remove authority for
prosecutorial decisions from the
military brass.
“This whole episode shows
there is a problem in a system that
needs to be modernized to get the
commander out of the driver’s
seat,” Fidell said.
In December, Sinclair offered
to plead guilty to some of the
lesser charges in exchange for the
Army dropping the sexual assault
charges, but he was ultimately
turned down by the general in
charge of Fort Bragg.
Under the military code of justice, the decision on whether to
accept Sinclair’s plea offer was
supposed to be based solely on
the evidence.
But Pohl said the newly disclosed emails showed that lawyers
and the general overseeing the
case had discussed a letter from
the accuser’s lawyer, which
warned that allowing the general
to avoid trial would “send the
wrong signal.”
In the letter, attorney Capt.
Cassie L. Fowler suggested that
the proposal plea deal would
“have an adverse effect on my
client and the Army’s fight against
sexual assault.”
“Acceptance of this plea would
send the wrong signal to those
senior commanders who would
prey on their subordinates by
using their rank and position,
thereby ensuring there will be
other victims like my client in the
future,” Fowler wrote.
Though prosecutors deny any
consideration was given to
Fowler’s comments about the
potential fallout, the emails cited
by the defense show they did discuss her assertions. One top military lawyer at Fort Bragg quoted
her letter and said he found
Fowler “very preachy.”
Testimony shows lawyers
involved in the case wanted to cut
a deal with Sinclair to avoid a
trial, especially after evidence
arose that his primary accuser lied
during testimony.
But they were overruled by the
base commander, Lt. Gen. James
Anderson.
Testifying from Afghanistan by
telephone, Anderson said Monday
that he didn’t thoroughly read
Fowler’s letter. The only thing he
weighed in rejecting the deal was
that the accuser wanted her day in
court, he said.
However, a Dec. 20 email he
sent to a military lawyer stated: “I
have read the letter and made my
decision.”
Fidell, the former military
prosecutor, said he found Anderson’s testimony more troubling
than the emails or the letter from
the accuser’s attorney.
“Really, the letter from the victim’s advocate only stated the
obvious — that this is a highstakes case,” Fidell said. “More
disturbing was the testimony that
the commanding general based
his decision on what the accuser
wanted, rather than the evidence
in the case and the advice of his
lawyers.”
Huffman said the Army’s case
against Sinclair, if it were to still
go to trial, would clearly be weakened by issues surrounding the
accuser’s credibility. He predicted
prosecutors will cut a deal resulting in Sinclair’s dismissal from
the Army at reduced rank, costing
him dearly in lost retirement benefits.
“He deserved to be court-martialed and he deserves punishment,” the former general said.
“But did he deserve to court-martialed for sexual assault? That is a
different question.”
HAWAII
Ex-soldier’s death penalty trial over daughter’s death begins
Defense lawyer says man was
ill-equipped to care for child
with special medical needs
BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) — A death
penalty trial started Tuesday with
a prosecutor telling jurors that the
fatal blow a former Hawaii-based
soldier dealt his 5-year-old daughter was so hard it left knuckle
imprints on the child’s chest.
Naeem Williams faces the death
penalty even though Hawaii abolished capital punishment in the
1950s. That’s because he’s being
tried in the federal justice system,
where executions are allowed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren
Ching told jurors in his opening
statement that the blow that killed
Talia Williams on July 16, 2005,
came after months of neglect,
assault and torture by Williams —
“her flesh and blood, her father”
— and a “wicked stepmother.”
Defense attorney John Philipsborn told jurors in his opening
statement that Williams was illequipped to care for a child, let
alone a child with special needs
who had bowel- and bladder-control problems. Philipsborn said
that when Talia went to live with
him in Hawaii, about seven
months before her death, he had
never cared for a child.
He said the defense’s case will
focus on what the Williamses
were thinking and “what they
were intending to do.”
Meanwhile, Ching spent about
an hour telling jurors disturbing
details of the alleged abuse,
including a neighbor overhearing
Williams commanding his daughter to eat her feces; Williams
whipping Talia with a belt while
she was duct-taped to a bedpost;
and the father hitting the girl so
hard with a plastic ruler he nicknamed “Mr. Paddle” that it broke.
Stepmother Delilah Williams
pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors to testify against the former soldier in exchange for a 20year sentence. Ching said Delilah
Williams will provide a “firsthand
account of abuse.”
Talia’s biological mother,
Tarshia Williams, also was
expected to testify. Ching said
Tarshia Williams and Talia’s
father weren’t married but share
the same last name because they
are distant relatives.
Other expected witnesses
include Talia’s former teacher at
Wheeler Elementary School, the
family’s former neighbors and the
medical examiner who concluded
that the death of Talia, who was
born in South Carolina, was the
result of battered child syndrome.
Naeem Williams also will take
the stand, Philipsborn, the defense
attorney, told the jury.
Philipsborn showed jurors a
grainy, black-and-white photograph taken several months before
Talia’s death and soon after the
birth of her half-sister.
“This photograph is a photograph of a tragedy in progress,”
he said.
When South Carolina Family
Court granted custody of Talia to
her father, Williams had never
cared for a child before, Philipsborn told jurors. When Talia went
to live with him in Hawaii, about
seven months before her death, he
had never spent an entire day with
a child, Philipsborn said.
Philipsborn said Naeem
Williams was married to a con-
trolling, angry and volatile
woman. Alexander Silvert,
Delilah Williams’ federal public
defender, declined to comment on
characterizations made about her
during opening statements
because she’ll be able to speak for
herself when she testifies.
Williams grew up with a mother who “took care of his every
need,” and then married a woman
who controlled his finances and
other daily tasks, Philipsborn said.
The couple’s relationship was
dysfunctional, including infidelity
and domestic disturbances requiring the involvement of military
police, the defense attorney said,
and “here in the midst of it was
Talia Williams.”
He warned jurors that the trial
would involve graphic testimony
and photographs.
“You will understand from
Naeem Williams he had both
strengths and limitations,”
Philipsborn said.
NEW YORK
Sandusky’s wife: Victims manipulated over money
NEW YORK (AP) — The wife
of former Penn State assistant
football coach Jerry Sandusky
says she “definitely” believes her
husband is innocent despite being
convicted of sexually abusing 10
boys and that the victims’ financial gain was at play.
Dottie Sandusky said in an
interview broadcast Wednesday on
NBC’s “Today” show that “there
was nothing that went on because
I was here” in the couple’s small
home in State College, Pa., where
some of the victims reported being
abused in the basement.
Although one accuser said his
muffled screams went unheard by
her upstairs, Sandusky heard nothing “because he didn’t scream,”
she said after giving interviewer
Matt Lauer a tour of the house.
“It’s not a dungeon,” she noted of
the basement.
She denied any suggestion that
she was a “weak spouse” who
enabled her husband and said she
believes his accusers had been
manipulated.
“I think it was, they were
manipulated, and they saw
money,” she said. “Once lawyers
came into the case, they said there
was money.”
She said in the interview
recorded Monday that she
believed that her husband showered with children but “that’s the
generation that Jerry grew up in.”
She insisted the inappropriate
behavior went no further: “I definitely believe him. Because if I
didn’t believe him, when I testified at trial, I could have not said
what I said. I would have had to
tell the truth.”
Sandusky, who testif ied for
about 40 minutes during her husband’s 2012 trial, also disputed a
police investigator’s account of a
statement by her husband following a 1998 complaint by a mother
who said Jerry Sandusky had
showered with her son.
He “would not say, ‘I wish I
was dead,’” Dottie Sandusky said.
She was joined in the interview
by filmmaker John Ziegler, who is
working on a documentary in
defense of the late Joe Paterno,
Jerry Sandusky’s longtime boss.
Jerry Sandusky, who is serving
a 30- to 60-year sentence, insists
he is innocent and has appealed
his conviction to the state
Supreme Court.
Dottie Sandusky said she visits
her husband once a week in his
southwestern Pennsylvania prison
but is allowed no physical contact.
“We talk about what’s been
going on with the family, we talk
about things with the case, how
things have been going for him,”
she said. Confined to his cell for
23 hours a day, he reads, meditates, writes and has a TV, “which
is a lifesaver for him,” she said.
She began to cry while saying
the case has been “really rough”
on her family.
Many friends have stood by the
couple, but lawyers have told others to keep their distance, she said.
Sandusky broke down again
when asked what her husband
misses most, f inally replying,
“Family meals, the fun times with
the grandkids, playing ball, doing
special things with friends.”
“He said, ‘I guess I took those
too for granted,’” she said.
But Sandusky said many people may find it hard to believe that
her husband has maintained a positive attitude.
“Jerry’s still a happy person,
and he smiles, and he tries to
make people laugh, and he said,
‘I’m in the situation I’m in and
I’m going to make the best I can
out of it.’”
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ACROSS
1 Report of a
shooting
5 Brunch offerings,
for short
8 Affected to a
greater extent
14 Home of ancient
Greek scholars
15 Google result
16 Civic alternatives
18 *Blubbered?
20 What a nod may
mean
21 “Wouldn’t miss
it!”
22 Cone origin
23 Heartbreak, e.g.
24 Home of El Greco
25 *What happened
after Mr. Onassis
contacted A.A.A.?
27 Reputation, on
the street
28 Kind of sum
30 Aero- completer
31 Washington ___
(N.Y.C.
neighborhood)
32 “That can’t be
good!”
33 Maligned
35 *Imaginary
overthrow of the
government?
37 Robin Hood and
others
40 “Mad Men” star
Jon
41 Jim Bakker’s ___
Club
44 Place to get clean
45 Title heroine
described in
the first lines
of her novel as
“handsome,
clever and rich”
46 Not at all chipper
47 *Give a Dust
Bowl migrant a
ride?
50 Director
Christopher and
actor Lloyd
52 1998 Sarah
McLachlan song
53 First name in ice
cream
54 Bank numbers
55 Not mind
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
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Edited by Will Shortz
Crossword
R
E
H
A
B
S
O
C
E
L
O
T
A
L
L
F
O
R
S H
O L I
M U D
G R E
A
S O W
A L A
K E Y
S T
A T
L O R
P A
M
T
A I T
C R E
R E D
O
E S
A T W
C T A
H A T
E
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S
H
H
H
H
N
O
I
S
E
A
D
A
S
H
S
E
N
I
L
E L
O B
N E
I T
N E
G H W
R I
W A L
E N D
E
D W H
Y H O
E R
T E
A Z Y
S E I
S
P
E
S
C
R
A
F
T
O
U
T
T
O
S
J E
E A
W
E C
L A
T
S N
R A
A P
O P
B E
E R
N S
E E
S T
T
T
R
U
E
T
O
S
K
E
W
E
R
57 Language that
gave us the
words heard
phonetically in
the answers to
the starred clues
58 Motivate
59 Back
60 Third person
61 Prepared for a
long drive, with
“up”
62 Part of a gym set
63 Roman foes
DOWN
1 Enchant
2 Gravely ill: Fr.
3 Gets snug
4 Ripped with a
knife
5 “Here we go
again!”
6 Agree
7 Messy spot
8 PC data format
9 Major alteration
of a business
structure, for
short
10 Old cable inits.
11 Warning to the
unwary
12 Kind of set
13 Quickly sought
safety, in a way
17 Fretted
19 Multivolume set,
for short
22 Get too much
sun, colloquially
25 Condition treated
with Adderall, in
brief
26 Theater
29 Red state
handouts?
32 Words always
preceding a date
1
2
3
4
5
14
6
7
8
15
18
9
10
19
23
25
28
26
29
30
32
33
35
38
34
36
39
40
44
41
45
47
48
52
53
55
13
20
24
31
12
17
22
27
11
16
21
37
No. 0206
42
43
46
49
50
51
54
56
57
58
61
59
60
62
63
PUZZLE BY JOE KROZEL
33 Source of
ill-gotten gains
38 Something taken
from a meter
46 Boil for a short
time
34 Kind of shop
39 Teacher/
astronaut
McAuliffe
48 Extra-large
41 Level off
51 “… ___ close
second”
35 Exodus figures
36 “Alas!”
37 Business
establishment
where customers
can make a
killing?
42 Catches on the
radio
49 Typed (in)
54 Zoo keeper?
43 Eases
56 Clear tables
45 One from Berlin
57 Shock
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Mortgages Recorded
Bernard J. Youngblood
Register of Deeds
As recorded in the office of the
Register of Deeds
$50,000 and above
The mortgage lender
(i.e. ABN AMRO MTG GROUP)
as indicated by capital letters
and applies to all subsequent
listings until another lender
is noted.
Jan. 2 - Jan. 10, 2014
Blaze Grozdanovski 1193
Ann Arbor Plymouth COMMUNITY FINANCIAL CREDIT
UNION $137,000
Ku r t D C a r l s o n 4 7 3 9 8
Adams Ct Plymouth 481703416 COMMUNITY FINANCIAL
CREDIT UNION $274,000
Frances E Anderson 1107
W A n n A r b o r Tr l P ly m o u t h
48170-1501
COMMUNITY
FINANCIAL CREDIT UNION
$347,000
Henny Schuck 12781 Lake
Po i n t Pa s s Va n B u r e n Tw p
48111-2295
COMMUNITY
$100,000
M a t t h ew S D av i s 2 9 1 0 5
H e n n e p i n S t G a rd e n C i t y
48135-2878
COMMUNITY
$40,000
D e b o r a h A L a i rd 6 9 1 0
Longwood Rd Canton 481871623 COMMUNITY FINANCIAL
Anne M Musson 46565 W
Ann Arbor Trl Plymouth 48170
COMMUNITY
FINANCIAL
Christian A Nielson 10029
C r e e k wo o d C i r P ly m o u t h
48170-3823
COMMUNITY
$85,000
Ruth A Niemic 9715 Terry St
Plymouth 48170-4530 COMMUNITY FINANCIAL CREDIT
UNION $100,000
John Rocker 42056 Lindsay
Dr Plymouth 48170-1852 COMMUNITY FINANCIAL CREDIT
UNION $12,000
Gloria F Garrison 1440 S
Linville Ave Westland 481864156 COMMUNITY FINANCIAL
Ly n n e M G r a n g e i ro 1 6 5
H a m i l t o n Av e P ly m o u t h
48170-2157
COMMUNITY
$140,000
Brian
Neher
33578
Berville Ct Westland 481864661 COMMUNITY FINANCIAL
Denise M Hodges 327 Saint
L aw r e n c e B l v d N o r t h v i l l e
48168-1566
COMMUNITY
$200,000
Daniel Phillips 13705
R i d g ewo o d D r P ly m o u t h
48170-2403
COMMUNITY
$25,000
Corrine N Aldrich 48131
Brewster Ct Plymouth 481703351 COMMUNITY FINANCIAL
Anil Kollipara 41517 Waterfall Rd Northville 48168-2244
FINANCIAL
COMMUNITY
Beth Johnston 3380 18th St
48192-6024
Wya n d o t t e
C RO S S C O U N T RY M T G I N C
$55,000
Willie J Collins 19773 Sumn e r R e d fo rd 4 8 2 4 0 - 1 3 3 8
C RO S S C O U N T RY M T G I N C
$55,000
Alan Pinon 22220 Beech St
Dearborn 48124-2704 DEARB O R N F E D E R A L S AV I N G S
BANK $144,000
John Dunn 8012 N Wildwood St Westland 48185-1436
DEARBORN FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK $164,000
A l l e n F B r a d fo rd 3 2 9 5 2
Barkley St Livonia 48154-3519
Deborah J Smith 2456
Geneva St Dearborn 481242558 DEARBORN FEDERAL
SAVINGS BANK $114,000
Inam G Mroczka 420 N Elizabeth St Dearborn 48128-1703
J e s s e L a ro c h e l l e 2 4 4 N
Franklin St Dearborn 481281516 DEARBORN FEDERAL
SAVINGS BANK $128,000
David Artiss 2012 Byrd St
Dearborn 48124-4104 DEARB O R N F E D E R A L S AV I N G S
BANK $65,000
Rachel A Plafchan 709 N
Melborn St Dearborn 481281770
DFCU
FINANCIAL
$110,000
Susan Mccullen 24400
S a n d L a k e L n B row n s t ow n
Township 48134-8064 DFCU
FINANCIAL $114,000
Jennifer A Duda 10219
We l l i n g t o n C t P ly m o u t h
48170-3451 DFCU FINANCIAL
$92,000
C t B row n s t ow n Tow n s h i p
$125,000
Wyandotte 48192-6908 DOWNRIVER COMMUNITY FEDERAL
Tami L Printy 4730 Sherwood Cir Canton 48188-2209
FIFTH THIRD BANK $32,000
We l l i n g t o n S t Wo o d h av e n
48183-1623 FIFTH THIRD
MORTGAGE $103,000
Gail Farone 14482 Parklane
St Livonia 48154-5224 DFCU
FINANCIAL $120,000
M i c h a e l Pa r l e t t 1 9 3 0 5
Ke n o s h a S t H a r p e r Wo o d s
48225-2133 EMBRACE HOME
LOANS INC $76,000
C h a r l e s H B r a d l ey 9 0 1 5
Arnold Redford 48239-1529
F I F T H T H I R D M O RT G AG E
$72,000
Susan M Mancina 37642
Munger Dr Livonia 48154-1277
$179,000
Matthew C Carpenter 13320
Superior St Southgate 481951206 ENVOY MORTGAGE LTD
$54,000
L a k e s h a R L u n dy 1 8 9 5 1
Whitcomb St Detroit 482352847 FIFTH THIRD MORTGAGE
$29,000
Nafaa Hasan 4641 Jonathon
St Dearborn 48126-4028
$96,000
Kathleen Labadie 8800 Sunnybrook Ln Grosse Ile 481381770 EVERBANK $147,000
Andrew Allendorf 2313 E
Roundtable Dr Canton 481881930 FIFTH THIRD MORTGAGE
$210,000
Charles F Gazdowicz 16656
Ziegler St Taylor 48180-5368
$60,000
Kathleen A Mitchell 17476
Rexwood St Livonia 481523433 FIFTH THIRD MORTGAGE
$135,000
Charley S Kerr Iii 8136 Tom
B row n D r We s t l a n d 4 8 1 8 5 2697 FIFTH THIRD MORTGAGE
$225,000
William A Polk 27421 Buckingham St Livonia 48154-4609
$141,000
Nicole Vaiyanet 19168 Red
Oak Ln Brownstown Township
MORTGAGE $175,000
Eric D Baker 50358 Mulberry Ct Nor thville 48168-6830
$277,000
K r y s t a l Ke a s t 2 0 4 9 E
Roundtable Dr Canton 481881924 FIFTH THIRD MORTGAGE
$142,000
Gale I Schrieber 26025 Martin Ln Grosse Ile 48138-1831
$230,000
Tami L Printy 4730 Sherwood Cir Canton 48188-2209
$177,000
Daniel W Burke 8925 Northern Ave Plymouth 48170-4041
$109,000
Gaylynn Poynter 201 Fairmont St River Rouge 482181220 FIFTH THIRD MORTGAGE
$32,000
Byron M Shirar 615 Lincoln
Rd Grosse Pointe 48230-1219
$264,000
G e r a l d i n e B row n 2 3 2 1 1
Sunset Rd Taylor 48180-8702
$55,000
Ramandeep Sohi 34321
Shawnee St Westland 481857014 FIFTH THIRD MORTGAGE
$85,000
Tracy Lopus 48029 Colony
Farms Cir Plymouth 481703304 FIFTH THIRD MORTGAGE
$126,000
A n d r ew J M a s t e r 2 0 4 7 3
Lexington Redford 48240-1150
$34,000
Barbara A Wozniak 15756
Oporto St Livonia 48154-6226
FINANCIAL PARTNERS CREDIT UNION $100,000
Leon G Love 3874 Radcliff
Dr Canton 48188-7231 FIFTH
THIRD MORTGAGE $104,000
Joseph Fenech 32076 Mt
Vernon FIRST COMMUNITY
FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
$40,000
Jeffrey J Neckel 9082 Fremont St Livonia 48150-4008
DFCU FINANCIAL $97,000
Sonali Deolekar 44845
Seabrook Dr Canton 481883271
DFCU
FINANCIAL
$290,000
Kathleen M Bain 41481
S t o n e c ro f t C t N o r t h v i l l e
$244,000
Chantel Doctor 10054
Hazelton Detroit 48239-1482
EVERBANK $120,000
Jacqueline
H e n d e rs o n
18359 University Park Dr Livonia 48152-2627 DFCU FINANCIAL $89,000
Jennifer L Sieg er t 42062
Sutters Ln Northville 481682 0 5 2 F E A RO N F I N A N C I A L
$238,000
Amanda L Fitzpatrick 13967
Stamford St Livonia 481545407
DFCU
FINANCIAL
$126,000
W i l l i a m H B ro ck 2 4 8 1 6
C a m b r i d g e S t Wo o d h av e n
BANK $31,000
Jerome P Carney 8420 Congress Dr Canton 48187-2019
Jack J Bartok 29020 Lowell
St Gibraltar 48173-9729 FIFTH
THIRD BANK $95,000
Cynthia A Riley 2848 Wakefield Dr Canton 48188-6260
Charlotte M Isham 26804
C r aw fo rd R d B row n s t ow n
Township 48174-9512 FIFTH
THIRD BANK $88,000
T i f f a ny A q u i n o 1 5 0 2 5
C h a m p a i g n R d A l l e n Pa r k
$86,000
Erica Mckinney 35209 Elmir a S t L i vo n i a 4 8 1 5 0 - 5 6 2 3
A n d r ew J H i ck m a n 1 6 2 6
Lochmoor Blvd Grosse Pointe
Wo o d s 4 8 2 3 6 - 4 0 1 5 D F C U
FINANCIAL $361,000
Armazik Avanessian 9211
Lamont St Livonia 48150-3449
Carol A Porter 35601 Vargo
St Livonia 48152-2940 DFCU
FINANCIAL $90,000
Ehab Kildani 1905 Venice St
Dearborn 48124-4140 DFCU
FINANCIAL $136,000
Kristi L Sharp 38136 S Vista
Dr Livonia 48152-1069 DISC OV E R H O M E L OA N S I N C
$270,000
Craig S Dukus 25018 Lisa
Mary D Wilson 4659 23rd St
R o b e r t O S ay g a n 8 3 3 0
Church Rd Grosse Ile 481381 3 3 1 F I F T H T H I R D BA N K
$118,000
Debra Vroman 28349 Cooke
St Flat Rock 48134-1257 FIFTH
THIRD BANK $58,000
Gregory S Chahil 25085
White Birch Ct Brownstown
Township 48134-1191 FIFTH
THIRD BANK $67,000
Robert Danforth Iii 262 Lincoln Rd Grosse Pointe 482301 6 0 5 F I F T H T H I R D BA N K
$83,000
D av i d A L a g i n e s s 2 4 3 0
P i n e t r e e D r Tr e n t o n 4 8 1 8 3 2 2 2 1 F I F T H T H I R D BA N K
$38,000
Bruce D Shively 24834 New
York St Dearborn 48124-4485
FIFTH THIRD BANK $26,000
Gail H Draft 9727 Sylvester
St Taylor 48180-3576 FIFTH
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N i c h o l a s B a d g l ey 2 1 0 8 3
Catherine A Russell 14880
Coventry Dr FIRST COMMUNITY
FEDERAL
CREDIT
UNION $86,000
DLN Front Mar13-15
3/12/14
2:22 PM
Page 5
LEGAL VIEW:
Defense attorneys speak up
From Page 3
ATTORNEYS & COUNSELORS AT LAW
HOHAUSER KUCHON
told the jur y to just read the
instructions.
Maxwell claimed the judge’s
communication with the jury,
without lawyers present, violated
his right to be present during his
trial. The Court of Appeals said
the lawyer’s failure to make a
contemporaneous objection to
the communication doomed the
appeal.
Not so, said the Supreme
Court in a 6-1 decision. With
their excused absence, Maxwell
and his lawyer did not have the
opportunity to be present and
challenge the court’s decision to
address questions from the jury,
the court said.
The Supreme Cour t sent
Maxwell’s appeal back to the
Court of Appeals to consider the
judge’s communication with the
jury.
Witness jailed before she
could object
Felecia Amos also emerged a
winner among cases decided
Feb. 27.
Amos had been involved in a
contentious split with her husband, complicated by custody
exchanges of the couple’s son.
Amos complained that her husband had threatened her during
two encounters, in violation of a
court order.
Describing one such incident
at trial, she claimed the husband
harassed her with profanity and
threats and followed her in his
car.
Apparently unknown to
Amos, the husband had brought
a witness to observe the custody
exchange. The witness even
videotaped the encounter.
The evidence from the witness contradicted Amos’ testimony.
The Arlington County judge
accused Amos of having “flatout lied under oath” and using
the court process to further her
vindictive intentions. The judge
held Amos in contempt, sentenced her to 10 days in jail, and
promptly called the next case.
Amos f iled a motion to
vacate her sentence and also
appealed to the Cour t of
Appeals.
The state argued she gave up
her due process claims because
she did not object when the trial
judge held her in contempt.
The Court of Appeals decided
Amos never had the chance,
reversing the contempt conviction.
The Supreme Court agreed,
finding Amos’ appeal was preserved under the “unusual circumstances” where an unrepresented witness — found in contempt — was immediately taken
to jail.
The parties did not dispute
that the actions of the judge prevented Amos from presenting a
contemporaneous objection, the
court said.
Besides encouraging defense
lawyers to speak up, the Maxwell
and Amos opinions have other
lessons, Benjamin said.
For trial courts, he said, the
decisions teach that expediency
should not trump proper procedure.
The lesson for the Court of
Appeals is, “You’re going overboard with procedural default,”
Benjamin said.
“The Supreme Court wants to
keep things a little more on the
straight and nar row than the
Cour t of Appeals,” ag reed
Jonathan P. Sheldon of Fairfax.
Noting his criminal defense
experience around the country,
Sheldon said Virginia stands out
for the use of procedural error to
block appeals.
“I have never seen procedural
default so strictly and unfairly
applied as in the state of Virginia,” Sheldon said.
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Political Scene
Debate over military sexual assaults far from over
Senate-approved legislation would ban ‘good soldier defense’
BY RICHARD LARDNER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
tumult over how to stop sexual
assaults in the U.S. military is a
long way from over as Congress
grapples to find legislative solutions and new details emerge
about a high-profile case involving an Army general and a female
captain under his command.
In a rare display of bipartisanship, the Senate unanimously
approved legislation this week to
better protect victims within the
ranks and ban the “good soldier
defense” to make sure a defendant’s fate is determined solely by
evidence. But the House has signaled it won’t take up the bill
immediately despite the momentum generated by the Senate’s 970 vote.
The trial at Fort Bragg, N.C.,
of Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair
also may act as a referendum of
sorts on whether more dramatic
changes in the military justice
system are necessary. The Senate
last week defeated a bill by Sen.
Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that
would have stripped commanders
of their authority to prosecute sexual assault cases, placing that
power with military lawyers
instead.
But a recent ruling in the Sinclair case by the judge, Col.
James Pohl, could aid Gillibrand
and her supporters in their efforts
to revive the bill. Sinclair, the former deputy commander of the
82nd Airborne Division at Fort
Bragg, is accused of twice forcing
a female captain to perform oral
sex on him in Afghanistan in 2011
during a three-year extramarital
affair. He has admitted to the
affair but denied assaulting the
woman.
After reviewing a series of
emails connected to Sinclair’s
case, Pohl said a decision by military off icials at Fort Bragg to
reject a plea bargain with the general may have been improperly
influenced by political concerns.
In the emails, military officials
warned that allowing the general
to plea bargain, and avoid trial,
would “send the wrong signal,”
Pohl said.
On Tuesday Pohl dismissed the
jury to allow the defense time to
work out a new plea deal with the
military.
Sinclair’s attorneys said the
Army pressed ahead with a weak
case for fear of the political blowback if they had dropped charges
against such a high-profile defendant.
“This case is Exhibit A for why
the Senate should pass the Gillibrand bill when they next have an
opportunity,” said Eugene R.
Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School.
An Associated Press investigation last month into more than
1,000 reports of sex crimes found
a pattern of inconsistent judgments and light penalties at U.S.
bases in Japan. In two rape cases,
commanders overruled recom-
An Associated
Press inquiry
into more
than 1,000
reports of sex
crimes found
a pattern of
inconsistent
judgments
and light
penalties at
U.S. bases in
Japan.
mendations to court-martial and
dropped the charges instead.
Even when military authorities
agreed a crime had been committed, the suspect was unlikely to
serve time, according to reports
involving U.S. military personnel
in Japan between 2005 and early
2013. Nearly two-thirds of 244
service members whose punishments were detailed in the records
were not incarcerated. Instead
they were fined, demoted, restricted to their bases or removed from
the military. In more than 30
cases, a letter of reprimand was
the only punishment.
The Pentagon’s top brass is
firmly opposed to removing sexual assault cases from the chain of
command, arguing that officers
should have more responsibility,
not less, for the conduct of the
troops they lead.
Military officials said Tuesday
that the fact that the Sinclair case
went to trial shows the Gillibrand
legislation to take control out of
the hands of commanders isn’t
necessary. Two officials familiar
with the case said it went to trial
because the commander ordered
the court-martial. The lead prosecutor had urged the most serious
charges be dropped against Sinclair because of questions about
the victim’s statements.
They said the case illustrates
that while prosecutors may make
decisions based on whether they
can win or lose a case, commanders will push to pursue a case if
they believe a subordinate
behaved improperly. The officials
spoke on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized
to publicly discuss an ongoing
legal matter.
Glen Caplin, a spokesman for
Gillibrand, said Tuesday that an
independent military justice system “is not only the right thing to
do for our men and women in uniform but would also mitigate
issues of undue command influence” in military legal proceedings.
Gillibrand has vowed to seek
another vote on her legislation,
most likely in the late spring when
the Senate begins work on a
sweeping defense policy bill for
the 2015 fiscal year that begins
Oct. 1.
Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, DHawaii, and Dan Benishek, RMich., have introduced companion legislation in the House. The
House will likely address their bill
as well as the legislation unanimously approved by the Senate
when it assembles its own version
of the 2015 defense policy bill in
the coming weeks.
Gillibrand fell just five votes
short of the 60 she needed to
overcome a filibuster. She garnered support from 11 Republicans, including conservative Sens.
Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of
Kentucky and David Vitter of
Louisiana.
Gabbard and Benishek have
gathered 71 co-sponsors so far,
including 31 Republicans.
“The common thread we have
heard from sexual assault survivors has been the call for
removing the decision-making
authority on whether or not to
prosecute these violent sexual
crimes out of the chain of command,” Gabbard said Tuesday.
The Pentagon has estimated
that as many as 26,000 military
members may have been sexually
assaulted in 2012, based on an
anonymous survey. Many victims
are still unwilling to come forward despite new oversight and
assistance programs aimed at
curbing abuse, the military says.
STUDENTS:
Thompson left his law firm to launch health and wellness startup company
From Page 1
He moved in with a 20-yearold sister.
“I was harboring so much
anger and bitterness,” Thompson
said. “Every day in high school, I
went to school angry. I would cuss
you and fight you at the drop of a
dime.”
He began to steal from stores
and sell the stuff at school to have
money. He began to sell drugs.
“I did a lot of foolish stuff,”
Thompson said.
In 1996, with failing grades, he
heard his friends talk excitedly
about going to college soon. He
knew that wasn’t going to happen
for him, so he dropped out of
school and worked odd jobs and
sold drugs.
After a few years, his friends,
now college students, would come
home and tell him of their great
experiences. Thompson realized
he wanted what they had. In 1998,
he was working as a housekeeping
supervisor at a motel and he got
in an argument with his boss.
Something sparked inside him.
“I walked off the job and went
to the closest community college I
could find,” Thompson said.
He was advised to get his
GED, so he studied and did well
when he took the test. He began
attending Washtenaw Community
College and did well there.
“That got the juices flowing,”
Thompson said.
He went to Eastern Michigan
University and excelled there,
graduating with a degree in political science in 2002 after three
years.
Then, he went to work as an
aide for U.S. Sen. Debbie
Stabenow, D-Mich., and saw people making a difference in Washington, D.C. Many of them were
attorneys.
“After one year, I came back to
Michigan and started studying for
the LSAT,” he said.
Thompson didn’t get a great
score, but Wayne Law officials
considered his life experiences
and admitted him.
He graduated in the top 20 percent of his class.
“It’s a lesson in hard work,” he
told the teens. “There were days
when I would study 10 to 12
hours a day.”
He was president at Wayne
Law of the Black Law Students
Association and involved in student government and many other
aspects of law school.
“I refined my leadership ability,” Thompson said.
In 2008, he graduated and took
the bar exam, scoring in the top 1
percent in the nation on the multistate portion of the test.
“I made up my mind that no
one — absolutely no one — was
going to work harder than I did,”
he said. “I wanted to be a corporate attorney. I did that for 5-1/2
years. For me, being a lawyer was
a means to an end.”
One day, he and a friend,
Wayne Law student Shawn Blanchard, were talking and realized
that they were getting out of shape
physically and that so were many
of their friends. They were concerned, too, about the epidemic of
obesity in Detroit. Using Facebook, they set up a running event
that drew about 30 people.
Since then, the fitness movement they started has grown dramatically, and in 2012, they
formed Networkingout LLC, a
health and wellness startup company.
On Jan. 30, Thompson left his
job as an attorney with Bodman
PLC to devote himself full time to
his new venture.
“Leaving a legacy is extremely
important to me,” Thompson said.
“What’s more important than giving someone a new lease on life?”
The Cass Tech students said
Students from Detroit’s Cass Technical High School listen during
one of the presentations at Wayne State University Law School’s
Discover Law Day.
they were inspired by his talk.
“It doesn’t matter what you
want to be, if you work hard
you’ll get where you want to be,”
said 10th-grader Ayanna King
after hearing Thompson speak.
Ninth-grader Beania Seupersad,
who wants to be a lawyer, said, “I
can do the same thing. He inspired
me to work a little harder.”
The students then broke into
groups. One group held a mock
trial in Wayne Law’s Moot Courtroom, and the other formed a
“jury” to sentence a fictional 17year-old caught selling drugs for
the first time. They talked about
Thompson’s experiences and
about second chances, they talked
about the law and they talked
about what it truly means to have
a jury of one’s peers.
Thomas pointed out that the
skills they were using to negotiate
and reason as a “jury” were the
same skills needed to go to law
school and be an attorney.
“You have the ability,” she told
the teens.
Wayne Law first-year student
Cecil Roberson of Detroit chatted
with the teens about his own life
and advised them to make good
use of opportunities, such as Discover Law Day.
“You’ve got to keep evolving
and just keep growing,” Roberson
said.
ASKED:
Case is currently pending
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From Page 1
DENNIS W. CLEARY P.C.
37000 Grand River Ste. 300
Farmington Hills MI 48335
[email protected]
[email protected]
WASHINGTON
ADR
SERVICES
(t) 248 442-9150
(c ) 248 722-1425
Terrence Thompson went from being a high school dropout, thief and drug dealer to a law school
graduate and co-founder and CEO of a health and wellness company.
including bouncers, housemothers
and disc Jockeys — employees
that don’t normally receive tips.
Thorpe: Could a performance
fee or tips a dancer receives be
used to offset the club’s minimum
wage obligations under the
FLSA?
Bonanni: This very argument
was rejected by the court in the
Hart case. The employer argued
that performance fees paid to the
dancers by customers should be
used to meet the employer’s wage
requirements because the employer did not make the performance
fees part of its gross receipts, and
distribute from its gross receipts
some of those performance fees
back to the exotic dancers. The
court held that the performance
fees were actually tips in which
the club was not allowed share,
and were not service fees.
Thorpe: What’s the current
status of the case and what’s the
next step?
Bonanni: Plaintiffs’ Rule
216(b) Motion for Conditional
Class Certification is currently
pending and awaiting the Court’s
ruling. Should the Court grant
Conditional Class Certification,
notice will be issued to all former
and current exotic dancers (and
other misclassified employees) at
the Defendant night clubs advising them of the law suit and providing them the opportunity to
“opt-in” to the action.
DLN Front Mar13-15
3/12/14
2:22 PM
Page 6
Across the Nation
National Roundup
NEW JERSEY
Trial begins over
creek-toss death
of 2-year-old girl
FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) —
The murder trial of a man
charged with tossing his 2-yearold daughter into a creek while
still strapped into her car seat
began Wednesday with opening
statements.
Arthur Morgan III of Eatontown is accused of weighing
down the seat with a tire-changing jack so it would sink. He is
charged with killing his daughter, Tierra Morgan-Glover.
Her body was found partially
submerged in a creek at Shark
River Park in Wall Township,
about 20 miles north of her
Lakehurst home, on Nov. 22,
2011. Prosecutors say Morgan
had asked the girl’s mother if he
could take Tierra to see a movie
about dancing penguins. When
he didn’t return her after a few
hours, the mother, Imani Benton, called police.
In addition to the murder
charge, Morgan is charged with
interference with custody and
child endangerment. He faces a
maximum sentence of life without parole, plus 15 years to be
served consecutively, if convicted.
According to prosecutors,
Morgan tossed the car seat, with
his daughter strapped snugly
inside its protective belts, from
an overpass into the chilly water
of the creek. To ensure that it
sank, he had attached a car jack,
the heavy metal contraption used
to raise a car’s chassis to change
a flat tire, prosecutors said.
Her cause of death was listed
as “homicidal violence, including submersion in water.” An
autopsy determined that the
child was alive when she hit the
water.
Morgan fled to California following the child’s death and was
found in San Diego by a fugitive
recovery task force. He was the
subject of a nationwide manhunt
and had been featured on the
website of “America’s Most
Wanted” after Tierra’s body was
found.
LOUISIANA
Man who spent
26 years on La.
death row free
ANGOLA, La. (AP) — A
man who spent nearly 26 years
on death row in Louisiana
walked free of prison Tuesday,
hours after a judge approved the
state’s motion to vacate the
man’s murder conviction in the
1983 killing of a jeweler.
Glenn Ford, 64, had been on
death row since August 1988 in
connection with the death of 56year-old Isadore Rozeman, a
Shreveport jeweler and watchmaker for whom Ford had done
occasional yard work. Ford had
always denied killing Rozeman.
Ford walked out the maximum security prison at Angola
on Tuesday afternoon, said Pam
Laborde, a spokeswoman for
Louisiana’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
Asked as he walked away
from the prison gates about his
release, Ford told WAFB-TV, “It
feels good; my mind is going in
all kind of directions. It feels
good.”
Ford told the broadcast outlet
he does harbor some resentment
at being wrongly jailed: “Yeah,
cause, I’ve been locked up
almost 30 years for something I
didn’t do.”
“I can’t go back and do anything I should have been doing
when I was 35, 38, 40 stuff like
that,” he added.
State District Judge Ramona
Emanuel on Monday took the
step of voiding Ford’s conviction
and sentence based on new
information that corroborated
his claim that he was not present
or involved in Rozeman’s death,
Ford’s attorneys said. Ford was
tried and convicted of f irstdegree murder in 1984 and sentenced to death.
“We are very pleased to see
Glenn Ford finally exonerated,
and we are particularly grateful
that the prosecution and the
court moved ahead so decisively
to set Mr. Ford free,” said a
statement from Gary Clements
and Aaron Novod, the attorneys
for Ford from the Capital Post
Conviction Project of Louisiana.
They said Ford’s trial had
been “profoundly compromised
by inexperienced counsel and by
the unconstitutional suppression
of evidence, including information from an informant.” They
also cited what they said was a
suppressed police report related
to the time of the crime and evidence involving the murder
weapon.
Currently, there are 83 men
and two women serving death
sentences in Louisiana, according to Laborde.
A Louisiana law entitles
those who have served time but
are later exonerated to receive
compensation. It calls for payments of $25,000 per year of
wrongful incarceration up to a
maximum of $250,000, plus up
to $80,000 for loss of “life
opportunities.”
TEXAS
$600K in tithes
stolen from Joel
Osteen’s church
HOUSTON (AP) — Authorities are investigating after
$600,000 in checks and cash
was stolen from a safe at Pastor
Osteen’s
Houston
Joel
megachurch, which has one of
the largest congregations in the
country.
Police spokesman Kese
Smith said Tuesday $200,000 in
cash and $400,000 in checks
were stolen from a safe sometime between 2:30 p.m. Sunday
and 8:30 a.m. Monday.
The theft was reported Monday morning by a church
employee and an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who provides security at the facility.
No arrests have been made,
Smith said.
Church officials declined to
comment Tuesday.
In a statement issued Monday, Lakewood Church said the
money and checks taken, as well
as some envelopes with written
credit card information, were
limited to funds given during
this past weekend’s Saturday and
Sunday services.
“We are working with the
police to fully investigate the
incident,” the statement reads.
“The funds were fully insured,
and we are working with our
insurance company to restore the
stolen funds to the church.”
The church encouraged people who made contributions this
past weekend to keep track of
their accounts and report any
suspicious activity.
But church off icials noted
there was no electronic data
breach and that individuals who
put their offerings in a drop box,
gave online or made a bookstore
purchase were not affected.
More than 40,000 people
attend weekly services led by
Osteen, whose televised sermons
reach nearly 100 countries.
NEW JERSEY
Judge blocks dad
from presence
in delivery room
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) —
Women in New Jersey can block
a baby’s father from the delivery
room.
A state judge, citing a
woman’s right to privacy, ruled
that mothers can decide who
will be with them when giving
birth.
In an opinion released Monday, the judge cited privacy
rights outlined in two federal
abortion cases.
The case was argued over the
telephone last year in Passaic
County while Rebecca DeLuccia
went into labor and delivered a
girl. Her estranged f iance,
Steven Plotnick, wanted access
to the baby at birth.
Plotnick’s attorney, Laura
Nunnink, tells The Star-Ledger
of Newark it was important to
her client to bond with the baby.
DeLuccia’s lawyer, Joanna
Brick, says DeLuccia allowed
Plotnick to visit, and his lawyer
says he saw the child.
[email protected]
WASHINGTON
CIA lawyer at center of computer snooping clash
Senator accuses senior counsel
of ‘potential effort to intimidate’
BY STEPHEN BRAUN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
senior CIA lawyer accused by the
head of the Senate Intelligence
Committee of trying to intimidate
the panel over its investigation into
secret prisons and brutal interrogations of terrorism suspects was
himself involved in the controversial programs. The attorney, the
CIA’s top lawyer, is cited by name
for his role more than 1,600 times
in the Senate’s unpublished, 6,300page investigative report, according to the panel’s chairwoman,
Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Until the California Democrat’s
extraordinary Senate speech Tuesday, the CIA’s senior deputy general counsel, Robert Eatinger, was
little known outside a small cadre
of highly specialized national
security lawyers. He has maintained a low prof ile in a legal
career that has spanned two
decades at the CIA and in the
Navy. But Feinstein’s remarkable
accusations instantly made
Eatinger famous — or infamous
— over a simmering constitutional
dispute that threatens to engulf
two branches of the government.
Eatinger had f iled a formal
criminal complaint earlier this
year on behalf of the CIA asking
the Justice Department to investigate whether the Senate Intelligence Committee had improperly
obtained classif ied CIA documents for an as-yet unreleased
Senate report on the agency’s use
of waterboarding and other abusive tactics against al-Qaida prisoners during the George W. Bush
administration.
Eatinger’s move boomeranged
Tuesday. Feinstein rose in the Senate chamber to lambaste the CIA
for what she described as quietly
removing documents the agency
had earlier provided to Senate
investigators, monitoring committee staffers and undermining congressional authority. Feinstein
lashed out at Eatinger personally
— though not by name — in
accusing the CIA lawyer of “a
potential effort to intimidate”
committee aides and of providing
“inaccurate information” to the
Justice Department.
Eatinger did not return telephone calls from The Associated
Press seeking comment Tuesday,
and the CIA did not respond to
questions about the counsel. CIA
Director John Brennan said the
agency was “not in any way, shape
or form trying to thwart this
report’s progression, release.” But
Brennan made no comments about
Feinstein’s characterization of the
agency’s top lawyer.
Feinstein’s public broadside at
the CIA may mark a rare turning
point in what long has been her
supportive relationship with the
intelligence community. But her
pointed criticism of Eatinger was
equally unusual, training a harsh
spotlight on a CIA veteran who
previously had been caught up in a
similar furor over the destruction
of CIA videotapes that showed the
agency’s waterboarding of several
al-Qaida prisoners.
“I view the acting counsel general’s referral as a potential effort
to intimidate this staff, and I am
not taking it lightly,” Feinstein
said. Two congressional officials
confirmed that Feinstein’s remarks
referred to Eatinger. The officials
spoke on condition of anonymity,
citing the classified nature of the
internal investigations.
Eatinger was temporarily elevated to CIA’s acting counsel general after top CIA lawyer Stephen
Preston left to become general
counsel for the Defense Department. President Barack Obama’s
new nominee for CIA general
counsel, Caroline Kass, still needs
Senate approval.
Eatinger was one of two CIA
lawyers who reportedly told the
director of the CIA’s clandestine
service in 2005 there were no legal
requirements for the agency to
hold onto 92 videotapes that
showed the abusive tactics used by
its interrogators against al-Qaida
prisoners. Although Eatinger and
the other lawyer did not specifically sanction it, the CIA official,
Jose Rodriguez, later ordered the
tapes destroyed.
Rodriguez’s destruction of the
tapes in late 2005 in an industrialstrength shredder came despite
objections by the Bush administration’s White House counsel and
the director of national intelligence. The CIA director at the
time, Michael Hayden, assured
senators that Rodriguez hadn’t
destroyed evidence because there
were still written cables describing
what the videotapes showed, but
Feinstein said Tuesday the cables
downplayed the brutality of the
program.
“The conditions of conf inement and interrogations were far
different and far more harsh than
the way the CIA had described
them to us,” Feinstein said. She
said Senate staff was justified in
removing a copy of an internal
CIA report from a CIA computer
that had been lent to the staff and
bringing it to their secure offices
on Capitol Hill because the CIA
previously had destroyed material
relevant to its investigation in the
form of the videotapes.
The unauthorized destruction
of the CIA videotapes is described
in detail in a new book, “Company
Man,” by the CIA’s then-top
lawyer, John Rizzo.
“To have this disturbing stuff
captured on videotape then to
destroy it without telling anyone, I
mean ... I trusted Jose and
believed his assurances that everything on the tapes was within the
approved guidelines,” Rizzo said.
Rodriguez, who also wrote a
book about the incident, “Hard
Measures,” has said he ordered the
CIA tapes destroyed “to protect
the people who worked for me and
who were at those black sites and
whose faces were shown on the
tape.”
Feinstein on Tuesday dredged
up Eatinger’s earlier role providing
legal advice about the videotapes
and harsh interrogation tactics.
She said he was a “chief lawyer”
for the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Unit from mid-2004 until
January 2009, when Obama shuttered the CIA’s black sites abroad
and dismantled the harsh interrogation program.
“He is mentioned by name
more than 1,600 times in our
study,” Feinstein said. “And now
this individual is sending a crimes
report to the Department of Justice
on the actions of the same con-
gressional staff who researched
and drafted a report — which
details how CIA officers, including the acting general counsel
himself, provided inaccurate information to the Department of Justice about the program.”
Eatinger has been a lawyer with
the CIA since at least 1994, when
he played a tangential role in the
aftermath of the Iran-Contra affair,
the political scandal involving the
Reagan administration’s secret
sale of arms to Iran to fund rebels
f ighting the leftist Nicaraguan
government. A court filing disclosed that Eatinger wrote on
behalf of the agency in February
1994 to obtain a classified copy of
the 1980s probe by independent
counsel Lawrence Walsh into the
scandal. Eatinger told a judge the
CIA wanted to know whether
Walsh’s findings required “internal investigation or whether any
regulatory, administrative or disciplinary action is warranted.”
A law graduate of the University of San Diego, Eatinger also
served as a military lawyer in the
Navy Judge Advocate General’s
Corps.
Eatinger was among several
CIA lawyers and officers chastised by a senior federal judge in
2009 for withholding critical
information in court proceedings
about the status of an agency operative who was accused of bugging
a former federal narcotics agent’s
home. Judge Royce C. Lamberth
said that Eatinger, former CIA
Director George Tenet and four
other agency officials had provided him with erroneous information that led him to dismiss
charges against the CIA operative.
Lamberth said the officials had
committed fraud in not providing
him with proper information about
the operative’s clandestine status.
In 2007, Eatinger’s name surfaced as part of the House Intelligence Committee’s probe of the
destroyed videotapes. An independent prosecutor appointed by
Attorney General Eric Holder also
reviewed the case but decided in
November 2010 not to file charges
against any CIA officials.
At issue in the new controversy
in the Senate is what advice
Eatinger gave Brennan before the
criminal f iling to Justice, and
whether the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence or the
White House were consulted and
gave approval.
In a talk before the American
Bar Association in Washington in
October, Eatinger sketched out the
thorny nature of his sensitive legal
job and described his chief role as
advising the CIA director “on the
potential consequences of choosing one road over another.”
Eatinger said he spent 50 percent of his day briefing Brennan
with legal options for every major
action “so that he makes a witting
decision and if it’s suff iciently
controversial, he can go to the
president, he can go to the National Security Council, go to the
(Director of National Intelligence)
and make sure that the others
make the balance along with us on
what to pursue and what not to
pursue.”
Eatinger added that he often
tells his secretive clients, “Just
because you can do it doesn’t
mean you should do it.”
OKLAHOMA
Sheriff dropped from libel lawsuit
CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) —
The Rogers County sheriff and
two others have been dropped as
defendants in a defamation lawsuit
filed by District Attorney Janice
Steidley.
Steidley and two assistants
sued last fall over a failed petition
drive aimed at removing Steidley
from office. The lawsuit alleges
libel and defamation after the petition accused Steidley and others of
witness tampering, wiretapping
and other crimes.
The Claremore Daily Progress
reported Wednesday that the plain-
tiffs were dismissed this week as
result of a mediated agreement
calling for Sheriff Scott Walton
and two others to pay a portion of
Steidley’s legal fees in exchange
for being removed as defendants.
The petition had asked for a
grand jury investigation into allegations that Steidley tampered
with witnesses, wiretapped courthouse employees along with an
assistant district attorney, and sent
threatening text messages to a
deputy sheriff. Attorney General
Scott Pruitt has directed the state’s
multicounty grand jury to investi-
gate the allegations, though no
report has been issued. The panel
next meets March 25.
The proposed settlement in the
defamation lawsuit said the parties
met Feb. 8 with former state Sen.
Stratton Taylor and current Sen.
Sean Burrage acting as mediators.
Though Walton and three others were dropped as defendants,
the civil case is still pending
against two current Claremore
police off icers and others who
would not sign the agreement or
were excluded from it, the newspaper reported.
Senate investigation of CIA
dogged by controversy
BY DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — A
marathon Senate investigation
into allegations of CIA torture
during the Bush-era war on terror is veering toward partisan
political territory and possibly
the federal courts after unusually pointed accusations against
the spy agency, including
potential criminal wrongdoing.
As a result of Sen. Dianne
Feinstein’s remarks Tuesday, yet
another investigation may be in
the offing to sort out what the
CIA did — or didn’t do — to
help or hamper Senate investigators.
Already, the episode has the
markings of a classic Washington controversy as interpretations of facts diverge, some
lawmakers choose sides, others
suggest the new probe and the
White House seeks a middle
ground.
At its core, the controversy
involves Feinstein’s allegation
that a CIA search of a computer
network it set up for Senate
investigators may have violated
the Constitution and federal
law.
“As far as allegations of the
CIA hacking Senate computers,
nothing could be further from
the truth,” the agency’s director,
John Brennan, said Tuesday,
denying an allegation that Feinstein, D-Calif., did not make in
her extensive remarks on the
Senate floor.
Brennan said the agency had
not sought to thwart Senate
investigators put to work investigating the issue. He added
that the agency was eager to put
to rest the controversy stemming from the interrogation of
detainees in the war on terror,
and said agency personnel
“believe strongly in the necessity of effective, strong and
bipartisan congressional oversight.”
But bipartisanship seemed to
erode in the wake of Feinstein’s
speech, in which she said the
CIA’s search of the dedicated
computer system possibly violated the Constitution as well as
federal law and an executive
order that prohibits the agency
from conducting domestic
searches.
Several Democrats praised
her, while some Republicans
pointedly did not.
“I support Sen. Feinstein
unequivocally, and I am disappointed that the CIA is apparently unrepentant for what I
understand they did,” Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, DNev., told reporters in the Capitol.
Another Democrat, Sen.
Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said
Feinstein had learned the lesson
established by an investigative
committee that looked into FBI
and CIA activities more than
three decades ago.
“She’s speaking the truth,”
he said. “The Church Committee taught us you’ve got to be
willing to do that or you’re not
going to get the truth,” he
added, referring to the long-ago
investigation headed by the late
Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho.
One Republican also had a
warning for the CIA. “Heads
should roll, people should go to
jail if it’s true,” Sen. Lindsey
Graham, R-S.C., said.
But he appeared to be in a
minority within his party.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss of
Georgia, the top Republican on
the Intelligence Committee,
said he disagreed with Feinstein
on the dispute with the CIA,
without fully specifying how.
“Right now we don’t know
what the facts are,” he told
reporters. “We’re going to continue to deal with this internally.”
A second committee Republican, Sen. Richard Bur r of
North Carolina, declined to
comment, saying he had not yet
read Feinstein’s speech.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky, the party’s leader,
declined to comment on the
ongoing investigation into what
happened.
At the White House,
spokesman Jay Carney sidestepped most questions on the
subject and reminded reporters,
“We are talking about an investigation into activities that
occurred under the previous
administration” and which
President Barack Obama ended
soon after taking office.
Carney said Obama wants
the report’s f indings to be
declassified eventually.
There were suggestions that
yet another investigation be
established to look into Feinstein’s charges and Brennan’s
rebuttal, a process that could
add months if not years to a
public accounting of detentions
and interrogations that occurred
a decade or more ago.
The activities at issue were
approved by the George W.
Bush administration and carried out by the CIA in the years
after the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001.
Obama outlawed their use
when he became president in
January 2009. The committee
began an investigation two
months later, and the CIA provided access to documents
totaling more than 6.2 million
pages, Feinstein said.
The Senate committee staff
wrote a 6,300-page report that
the panel approved in December 2012, and the CIA provided
a formal response six months
later. Neither the full report nor
a shorter summary has been
released to the public.
In her speech, Feinstein
accused the CIA of possible
criminal activity in improperly
searching the computer network
set up for lawmakers investigating allegations that the agency
used torture in terror investigations during the Bush administration.
In addition, more than 900
pages of documents the CIA
initially made available to Senate aides were inexplicably
withdrawn in the f irst few
months of 2010, she said.
“I have asked for an apology
and a recognition that this CIA
search of computers used by its
oversight committee was inappropriate. I have received neither,” she said.
Brennan told Feinstein in a
letter in January that he took
responsibility for ordering CIA
technicians to audit the computer systems used by the Senate staffers — to determine
whether there was a security
breach.
In the letter, shared with
CIA workers and obtained by
The Associated Press on Tuesday, Brennan said he asked for
the review after f inding that
Senate investigators may have
“improperly obtained and/or
retained ... sensitive CIA documents” that the CIA had no
record of sharing with them. He
repeated his request for their
return.
Feinstein also disclosed that
after the CIA inspector general
had referred the agency’s conduct to the Justice Department,
a top spy agency lawyer in
return “filed a crimes report ...
concerning the committee
staff ’s actions.”
Feinstein said she viewed the
move as “a potential effort to
intimidate this staff — and I am
not taking it lightly.”
The lawmaker did not name
the CIA official, although congressional officials identified
him as Robert Eatinger. Feinstein said he had once worked
in the unit at the agency that
carried out the activities under
investigation. “He is mentioned
by name more than 1,600 times
in our study,” she added.
DLN Front Mar13-15
3/12/14
2:22 PM
Page 7
Law Life
PAUL FLETCHER, THE DAILY RECORD NEWSWIRE
Quote unquote
Volunteer
with the
313 Project
Give
Sponsor
or Donate
Pro Bono
Opportunities
for Attorneys
& Students
the313project.org
“Lawyer walks into a bar….”
You know the rest. You’re at a
party and you’ve just mentioned
that you practice law. Invariably,
inevitably and unenviably, someone uncorks a lawyer joke.
Usually a stupid or even
insulting lawyer joke.
What do you do?
Puff up and act offended and
you look like a jerk. Smile and
nod, and you’re an accomplice in
running down your own profession. Turn around and insult
what the joke-teller does, and
you really look like a jerk.
There is no good answer to
this dilemma, which, I’ll wager,
every lawyer has encountered at
some point in his or her career.
There is a new book from the
American Bar Association, entitled “The Ultimate Lawyer
Quote Book,” that purports to
provide plenty of snappy comebacks to dumb lawyer jokes.
(One should always be wary of
anything that calls itself the
“ultimate”.)
But this stuff is pretty lacking
in snap. Crackle and pop are in
short supply, too.
For example, if someone calls
you an ambulance chaser, recall
Melvin Belli’s line, “I’m not an
ambulance chaser. I’m usually
there before the ambulance.”
If someone trots out the old
chestnut, “What is the difference
between a dead snake and a dead
lawyer by the side of the road?”
Tired answer: “There are
skidmarks in front of the snake.”
The book counsels instead, to
retort, “No one makes boots out
of lawyers,” quoting Richard
Herzfeld.
This is the weakest section of
a collection of quotations a
lawyer can study and call on
when looking for something
witty. Compiler Malcolm Kushner promises, “This book will
give you short, brilliant stuff to
say for just about any occasion
related to the practice of law.”
OK, that’s overselling. But
there are some good ones in the
book, which is organized by
topic:
advice
(Martin
Good
Buxbaum: “If you think you
have someone eating out of your
hand, it’s a good idea to count
your fingers.”)
Billing and finance (Dorothy
Parker: “The two most beautiful
words in the English language
are, ‘Check enclosed.’”)
Hiring (James Goldsmith: “If
you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”)
Ethics (Mark Twain: “If you
tell the truth, you don’t have to
remember anything.”)
Legal Insights (Steven
Wright: “I busted a mirror and
got seven years bad luck, but my
lawyer thinks he can get me
five.”)
Analogies (Ronald Reagan:
“Government is like a baby. An
alimentary canal with a big
appetite at one end and no sense
of responsibility at the other.”)
You get the idea. Is this 202page volume worth the 30 bucks
the ABA asks for it?
It says there are more than
1,000 quotations from more than
500 people (I found a disturbing
number of “Author Unknown”
quotations). There is some good
stuff in it, and some topics you
might not find in other quotation
books, such as Bartlett’s. And
not so good — there may be a
good-comebacks book written,
but it’s still in the ether.
There is a section entitled,
“Inspirational,” full of the aspirational stuff you’ll find on coffee mugs and posters. There’s
Chris Guillebeau: “If plan ‘A’
fails — remember you have 25
letters left.” And there is Oscar
Wilde: “Be yourself; everyone
else is already taken.”
And then for some reason,
Kushner concludes this section
by quoting himself: “All of us
are made of stars, just different
constellations.”
What?
Your 30 bucks. Your call.
Around the State
[email protected]
GRAND HAVEN
Fair shot at a new life
Sobriety Court deals with second-offense drunk drivers
BY KELLE LYNN
Grand Haven Tribune
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (AP)
— When the first eight participants of the 58th District Court
Sobriety Treatment Program
walked through the doors of a
Grand Haven courtroom last
month, they were met with a
warm welcome by Judge Craig
Bunce and an introduction to the
program’s team members.
Bunce listened closely to the
progress being made by the first
participant that was called to the
bench for the specialty court that
specifically deals with secondoffense drunk drivers.
“We take your sobriety seriously, and we want you to take your
sobriety seriously, then we all win
in the end,” the judge replied.
Bunce said he has seen a lot of
drunk drivers come through the
courts in the one year that he has
been a judge. He previously
served as an assistant prosecuting
attorney in Holland for several
years.
Bunce was also a part of the
Sobriety Treatment Program in
Holland, which offers second-time
drunken driving offenders an
alternative to a year in jail. He had
a strong desire to bring the program north.
“The reason I wanted to bring
sobriety court to Grand Haven is a
fairness issue for county residents,” Bunce told the Grand
Haven Tribune. “Holland has had
the sobriety courts running for
several years and we took individuals from the Grand Haven area
into our court, but it’s not an easy
f it since sobriety court is an
intense relationship-building program.”
Bringing the treatment program to Grand Haven opens the
door to a number of northern
Ottawa County residents who may
not be able to travel to the Holland program.
“It’s a win-win for the county,”
Bunce said. “I’m glad our county
leaders see the benefits of the program.”
Participants who apply and are
accepted into the program must
agree to random around-the-clock
spot checks by probation officers,
daily drug testing, community service work, mental health counseling and alcohol monitoring
devices. But the program —
which can last up to two years —
can give them a fair shot at a new
life.
“There’s a lot of people out
there who need help,” Bunce said.
“There are a lot of people who
haven’t been told that, if you work
at this, we’ll work alongside of
you. So, many people I’ve seen
come through have been told
throughout their entire lifetime
they are worthless and won’t
amount to anything. With a little
positive reinforcement, encouragement, relationship-building,
accountability, and having people
understand there are swift and
sure consequences for your
behavior, we are going to be there
to help you — if you want to
reach out and ask for help.”
Joe Legatz has been a criminal
defense attorney for 46 years and
is the first defense attorney in a
specialty court setting in Ottawa
County. He was involved in the
Adult Drug Treatment Court at
the circuit court level that deals
with felony cases involving drugs
and alcohol. Legatz passed the
baton to another attorney and
joined the newly formed sobriety
court team.
Legatz is not there to give individual legal representation, since
participants aren’t represented by
an attorney and are one-on-one
with the judge. His role is to make
sure participants are treated fairly
and properly, and their rights are
respected.
“I know, from my research in
reading, that to change a habit and
behavior pattern often takes several tries — not one or two, but
many — so you don’t give up on
people,” Legatz said.
Ottawa County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney John Scheuerle
started practicing criminal and
family law in Grand Haven in
1989 and joined the prosecutor’s
office in 2000. As a member of
the sobriety court team, he performs the initial screening by
reviewing the applicant’s criminal
history.
“I’m really happy that (County) Prosecutor Ron Frantz
assigned me to this project,”
Scheuerle said. “I’m looking forward to working with both the
team and the participants.”
State Roundup
LANSING
State of Michigan
fines prison food
vendor $98,000
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The
Michigan Department of Corrections has f ined its prison food
vendor $98,000 for a number of
violations, including employees
having improper contact with
inmates.
The corrections department
said Tuesday that Aramark also
was penalized for making unauthorized menu substitutions and
not preparing the correct number
of meals.
According to department
spokesman Russ Marlan, most of
the improper contact incidents
involved Aramark employees and
inmates exchanging notes, though
he said there was one incident in
which an Aramark worker kissed
an inmate.
Aramark spokeswoman Karen
Cutler says the Philadelphia-based
company is committed to resolving any issues as quickly as possible.
Aramark took over Michigan
prison food service operations late
last year in a move that eliminated
union jobs. The state says the contract will save millions of dollars
a year.
FLINT
Assault at pizza
place didn’t bring
police response
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Flint
police were not sent to a Domino’s Pizza location when a manager called 911 to report that an
employee was being assaulted.
The Flint Journal reviewed the
calls made by Heather Napthen.
The newspaper reports Wednesday Napthen called 911 three
times on Feb. 20 after an irate customer came into complain about a
$97 pizza order.
Napthen is heard saying: “Oh
my god, this girl is hitting my
employee. I need someone out
here now.”
A dispatcher responds that no
one is available to come and
check it out.
Flint Police Chief James Tolbert has said he’s “not quite satisfied” with the way the call went.
The chief says he wants all police
and 911 department employees to
receive public service training.
SOUTHFIELD
Medical examiner:
Michigan mall
death accidental
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) —
The January death of a 25-yearold man following a confrontation
with security guards at a suburban
Detroit shopping mall was accidental, a medical examiner has
ruled.
The Oakland County Medical
Examiner’s office made the determination in the death of McKenzie Cochran, the Detroit Free
Press reported, and the autopsy
found that the cause of death was
position compression asphyxia.
“The security guards were
doing their jobs ... acting appropriately,” according to Deputy
Medical Examiner Dr. Cheryl
Loewe, who said “no purposeful
act” was involved.
When asked to clarify the
cause of death, Loewe said it was
a result of “body position with a
possible component of compression.”
Lawyer Gerald Thurswell, who
is representing Cochran’s family
in an $800 million lawsuit, disputes the determination that the
death was accidental. He cited
video aired by Detroit TV stations
shows guards restraining a person
identified as Thurswell who says
he can’t breathe.
The security guards at Northland Mall “put him on the ground,
they crushed his chest to the
ground and caused him to be
asphyxiated. They killed him,”
Thurswell said. “They executed
him, they really did. They became
the judge and jury, and they executed him.”
Detectives were awaiting
autopsy results as part of their
investigation. The Associated
Press left a message with the
Southf ield police department
Wednesday seeking comment.
The department was expected to
send the case to the Oakland
County prosecutor’s off ice for
review.
Southfield police interviewed
witnesses and guards at Northland
Mall after Cochran died Jan. 28.
Investigators were awaiting autopsy results. Cochran was peppersprayed and restrained by at least
three guards after a shop owner
felt threatened and called for help.
Cochran was treated at the
scene by police and paramedics
and was pronounced dead later at
a Southfield hospital.
The Cochran family’s lawsuit,
filed in Oakland County Circuit
Court against the guards, their
employers and the mall’s owner,
alleges that the guards beat,
choked, strangled and battered
Cochran while keeping him
pinned down and preventing him
from breathing.
GRAND RAPIDS
Man gets life in
prison in robbery,
killings of 2 men
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)
— A 25-year-old man convicted
of first-degree murder in the robbery and slayings of two men outside a Grand Rapids convenience
store has been sentenced to five
terms of life in prison.
Michael Nor ris told Kent
County Circuit Judge Paul Sulli-
van on Tuesday that “you got the
wrong guy” and “the real killer
got a year in jail.”
The Grand Rapids Press
reports Nor ris received two
mandatory terms of life without
parole for the murder convictions
and three other life terms.
Authorities say Nor ris and
Manuel Rosado decided to rob
three men leaving a store Sept. 3,
2012. Rosado says Norris unexpectedly shot the three men,
killing two and seriously wounding the third. Rosado received a
plea deal in exchange for testimony.
Forty-f ive-year-old Felix
Reyes-Santos and 22-year-old
Alvaro Carrillo-Menendez died.
LANSING
Insurance law for
abortions taking
effect in Michigan
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A
new Michigan law requires residents or businesses wanting
health insurance coverage for
abortions to buy extra coverage.
Once the measure takes effect
Thursday, it will apply to new or
renewed health plans. The state
says seven of Michigan’s 45 insurers, including giant Blue Cross
Blue Shield, will sell supplemental abortion policies to small and
large employers.
Democrats and abortion-rights
advocates fiercely opposed the
legislation when it was approved
by the Republican-led Legislature
in December. But threats of a referendum or other ballot initiative
haven’t materialized.
A thrust behind the abortion
law is keeping taxpayer-subsidized plans on Michigan’s new
insurance marketplace from covering abortions, an option for
states under the federal health
care law.
But the measure also applies to
employer plans and coverage sold
to individuals outside the
exchange.
PREMi ASSOCIATES
Laura A. Athens
Earlene R. Baggett-Hayes
Joseph C. Basta
F. Peter Blake
Richard A. Bone
Hon. William J. Caprathe (Ret.)
Donna J. Craig
Gene J. Esshaki
Richard L. Hurford
Jon H. Kingsepp
Paul F. Monicatti
Antoinette R. Raheem
Jerome F. Rock
Phillip A. Schaedler
Sheldon Stark
Martin C. Weisman
William L. Weber, Jr.,
Executive Director
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248.644.0077.
Visit us online at premi.us.
DLN Front Mar13-15
3/12/14
2:22 PM
Page 8
Legal Affairs
[email protected]
LANSING
Mark the Date
OCBA presents “Preliminary Exams”
March 18
The Oakland County Bar Association’s Criminal
Law Committee will continue its Anatomy of a
Criminal Case - Year XV brown bag lunch lecture
series with a look at “Preliminary Exams” featuring
Daniel P. Hilf on Tuesday, March 18, from 11:30
a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland County Bar Center in Bloomfield Hills. The pre-registration fee for
OCBA members is $10 per lecture. The seminar fee
for all walk-ins, non-members and video viewers is
$20 per seminar. For additional information or to
register, call 248-334-3400 or visit www.ocba.org.
Canine Advocacy: Dogs
Assisting Child Witnesses
March 19
Wayne State Law School presents “Canine
Advocacy: Dogs Assisting Child Witnesses in
Court” on Wednesday, March 19, from 12:15 - 1:15
p.m in Room 2242 of the Damon J. Keith Center for
Civil Rights. Dan Cojanu and therapy dog Amos
will present on the use of therapy dogs to assist children testifying in court, a program which is rapidly
expanding in many countries throughout Michigan.
For more information, contact Rebecca Wrock at
313-418-8391.
McElroy Lecture on Law and Religion
March 19
The annual McElroy Lecture on Law and Religion will be held on Wednesday, March 19, at 5
p.m. at Ss. Peter & Paul Jesuit Church. This year’s
lecturer is Prof. Sarah Barringer Gordon, Arlin M.
Adams Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. A
complimentary reception will follow at approximately 6:00 p.m. in the School of Law’s atrium,
immediately adjacent to the Church. Hosted by University of Detroit Mercy Law Office of Alumni
Relations.
Wolverine Bar Association and
ICLE Joint Luncheon Seminar
March 20
The Wolverine Bar Association and ICLE present a Joint Luncheon Seminar
“Elevating Your Practice: How to Build Upon
State Court Experience and Succeed in the Federal
Courts” on Thursday, March 20, from 12 -1:30 p.m.
at Bodman, LLP 1901 St. Antoine Street in Detroit
(5th floor of Ford Field- enter at Gate G). Attorneys
Elizabeth Stafford, James Feinberg, and Elisa
Angeli-Palizzi will help prepare you to expand your
primarily state court practice and do more work in
federal court. In the second half of the program, you
will learn about the ICLE online resources that can
Let us know what’s happening in
the legal community.
We would like to let you know...
Who’s doing What and
Who’s going Where.
[email protected]
Editor of the Detroit Legal News
make your practice more effective and efficient, and
hear about ways to boost your reputation and credentials by getting involved as an ICLE contributor.
The seminar is $5 for WBA members; $10 for nonmembers. Lunch will be provided and parking will
be validated. RSVP to [email protected].
Forgotten from the Start:
The Law’s Failing of
the Urban Mentally Ill
March 21
The Journal of Law in Society and the Damon J.
Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School will present its annual spring
symposium, “Forgotten from the Start: The Law’s
Failing of the Urban Mentally Ill,” on March 21,
from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in Wayne Law’s Spencer
M. Partrich Auditorium. The symposium will examine the isolation and stigmatization of mental illness
within current societal structures to shed light on
the larger narrative about how cultural norms, institutions, and administrative structures fail to adequately address the needs of this community. To
register, email [email protected]. Parking will
be available for $6.50 (credit or debit cards only no cash) in Structure 1 across West Palmer Street
from the law school.
Wayne County Family Law
Mentoring Round Table
March 21
The Wayne County Family Law Bar Association
presents the Wayne County Family Law Mentoring
Round Table staring at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, March
21, at The Bistro at One Detroit Center, 500 Woodward Avenue across from Third Circuit Court in
downtown Detroit. Those new to the practice of
family law and seasoned practitioners willing to
share their experience are welcome to a lively
lunchtime chat, brown-bag style. Contact Friend of
the Court Attorney Anita Scott-Meisel at 313-2244116 for more information.
Gleaners Community
Food Bank Volunteer Day
March 22
The DMBA Barristers Section charitable committee has partnered with the Women Lawyers
Association of Michigan for a volunteer event at
Gleaners Community Food Bank on Saturday,
March 22nd, from 12:45 - 4 p.m. We will be sorting
and packing donated food in preparation for delivery to the more than 500 partner agencies that
Gleaners supports throughout Southeast Michigan.
If you’d like to volunteer (or have any questions),
contact Daniel Phillips at [email protected] or 313-223-3099.
Federalist Society debate on
interpretation of Constitution
March 27
Two constitutional law professors will face off
Thursday, March 27, at Wayne State University Law
School to debate “Originalism v. Living Constitutionalism.” The event, which is free and open to the
public, will be sponsored by Wayne Law’s Federalist
Society from 12:15 - 1:15 p.m. in the Spencer M.
Partrich Auditorium at the law school, 471 W.
Palmer. Lunch will be provided. Parking will be
available for $6.50 in Structure One across West
Palmer Street from the law school. Wayne State
Distinguished Professor of Law Robert Sedler, a
world-renowned expert on constitutional law, will
represent the living constitutionalism point of view.
He’ll be challenged by University of Toledo College
of Law Professor Lee J. Strang, a scholar of constitutional law and author of “Originalism and the
Aristotelian Tradition: Virtue’s Home in Originalism,” which was published recently in Fordham Law
Review. For more details, contact Josh Hadley at
(480) 703-7508 or [email protected].
Right To Counsel: National
Update, Michigan Perspectives
April 1
The Equal Access Initiative of the State Bar of
Michigan presents “Right To Counsel: National
Update, Michigan Perspectives” Tuesday, April 1,
from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Wayne State University Law
School, Spencer Partrich Auditorium, 471 Palmer in
Detroit. The right to counsel in civil matters continues to be a topic for national discussion. Currently a
few jurisdictions are experimenting with providing
representation to indigent civil litigants in certain
cases. For more information contact For more information contact Michelle Erskine at (517) 346-6316
or [email protected].
Information and
Data Security Symposium
April 2
The Detroit office of Jackson Lewis P.C. will
host its first-ever half-day symposium designed to
help business leaders, corporate counsel, compliance officers and HR professionals navigate the
increasingly complex world of information and data
security in the workplace. The event will be held on
Wednesday, April 2, at the Townsend Hotel, 100
Townsend Street in Birmingham. Featured speaker
Barbara L. McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of Michigan, will review the steps needed
to address trade secret breaches and discuss the best
ways to assess privacy and security practices to
safeguard employee information. Price for the event
is $50. For more information, contact Maggie
Olschanski at 248-936-1923 or [email protected].
Wolverine Bar Association
53rd Annual Barristers’ Ball
April 12
Join the Wolverine Bar Association/Wolverine
Bar Foundation for its signature fundraising event.
The 53rd Annual Barristers’ Ball “A Monte Carlo
Affair” on Saturday, April 12, at the MotorCity
Casino Hotel in Detroit. The black-tie affair will
commemorate the WBA’s 90-plus years of commitment to diversity, excellence in the legal profession
and improvement to the quality of life in the metropolitan Detroit area. Contact the WBA office at
313-962-0250,
or
via
email
to
[email protected], for sponsorship opportunities and table sales. Tables may only be purchased
by dues-paid members. Individual tickets may be
purchased
at
www.53rdbarristersball.eventbrite.com.
LAW OFFICES OF
ANTONE, CASAGRANDE & ADWERS,
P.C.
IMMIGRATION LAW FIRM
House OKs simpler land line elimination rules
Authority transferred to federal government
BY EMMA FIDEL
Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) —
Michigan residents have steadily
traded their land line phone service for cellphones over the past
decade, and now state lawmakers
are looking at making it easier for
phone companies to quit offering
the traditional service.
A Senate bill that would
streamline regulations for phone
companies ending the service
after 2016 passed the House 7139 Tuesday. It now goes back to
the Senate with changes. Republicans control both chambers.
The legislation would transfer
discontinuation approval authority
from the state to the federal government, and would no longer
require that at least two other
companies offer services in an
area where a third company wants
to end traditional service. A phone
company would need to notify its
customers, the public and the state
that it was proposing to end service, and notify them again when
it received federal approval, at
least 90 days before ending service.
The bill would also require that
the Michigan Public Service
Commission maintain a public
database of land line service
providers. The commission would
field customer requests for investigations into unreliable access to
911 and emergency services. If it
conf irmed unreliable access, it
could require a phone company to
provide voice and emergency services, although not necessarily via
traditional land lines.
Supporters say the legislation
would help Michigan discard outdated technology that most residents have already dropped.
AT&T Michigan President Jim
Murray said in a statement the bill
would help the company invest in
more efficient wireless communications and Voice over Internet
Protocol, or VoIP.
“It’s amazing in the last 15
years, people are voting with their
feet and choosing the better technologies, more modern technology, in terms of trying to allow for
those investments to happen,”
Rep. Aric Nesbitt, R-Lawton,
said. “This is what SB 636 allows
us to do, and this continues to
carry us into new investments in
telecommunications.”
Opponents of the bill include
AARP Michigan, which says the
legislation would leave some residents without affordable and
reliable phone service. The group
has questioned whether VoIP
would be reliable in a power outage.
“We still have 2 million some
people utilizing these lines,” Rep.
Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, said on
the House floor. “All throughout
the Upper Peninsula and I’m sure
many of your areas, cell coverage
is not really all that reliable just
yet.”
The number of traditional land
lines in Michigan dropped from
6.7 million in 2000 to 2.6 million
in 2012, according to the Federal
Communications Commission. In
the same period, the number of
wireless lines increased from 3.5
million to 9.3 million. Another 1.4
million land line users were
served with VoIP.
DETROIT
More residents sign up for health plans
State demographics mirror federal figures
BY COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — About
145,000 Michigan residents have
selected private insurance plans
under the federal health care law,
according to f igures released
Tuesday by President Barack
Obama’s administration.
The state’s numbers on the federal marketplace continue to rise
heading toward the April 1 deadline for people to get health coverage or risk fines.
The figures released through
the Health and Human Services
Department also show about
314,000 people in the state have
completed an application and are
eligible to enroll in a marketplace
plan.
Nationally, 4.2 million people
have signed up.
Michigan’s numbers show
“lots of opportunity for lots of
people within the next three
weeks to get themselves covered,” said Ter ry Burke, vice
president of individual business
for Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan. “There is still time for
people to make themselves available so they can get the coverage
they need.”
About 112,000 Michigan residents had signed up between Oct.
1 and the end of January.
Mirroring federal figures, 55
percent of those enrolled in
Michigan are women. Michigan’s
55- to 64-year-old age group had
the highest percentage enrollment at 32 percent. Nationally,
31 percent were age 34 and
younger.
About 87 percent in the state
enrolled with f inancial assistance.
“Our survey data and experience talking to consumers indicate that when they hear about the
financial assistance that is available, they’re eager to enroll,” said
Erin Knott, state director of Get
Covered America.
Get Covered America is a
national campaign focused on
educating consumers about health
coverage and insurance options
available under the Affordable
Care Act.
“With just three weeks left in
open enrollment, Get Covered
America staff and volunteers are
blitzing communities across
Michigan to ensure consumers
who have yet enrolled know how
and where to connect to coverage,” Knott said.
Burke said enrollment on the
federal marketplace tends to spike
around the 15th of each month
because people want to be eligible
for coverage by the first day of
the next month.
“Michigan could end the first
open enrollment period with as
many as a quarter-million people
on the marketplace,” he said.
Blue Cross will partner Saturday with the Detroit Regional
Chamber’s MI Health Answers
program at an area church to educate residents on enrolling in a
health plan. Blue Cross agents
certified to navigate the marketplace will be available to enroll
individuals, the state’s largest
health insurer said.
The city of Detroit also is promoting the importance of getting
coverage.
Mayor Mike Duggan declared
March Affordable Care Act
Enrollment Month and opened
some Detroit f irehouses and
recreation centers for residents to
sign up.
“Taking the signup process into
our neighborhoods will provide
easier access for our residents who
need assistance with health care
enrollment,” Duggan said last
month. “Everyone deserves quality, affordable health care. The
Affordable Care Act gives people
options that fit their needs and
their wallets. We want to see as
many Detroiters as possible take
advantage of this opportunity.”
Law professor given prestigious award
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George Mason Law Professor
Joshua D. Wright will received
the Paul M. Bator Award at the
Federalist Society’s 2014 Annual
Student Symposium, hosted by
the University Of Florida Levin
College Of Law. The Bator Award,
established in 1989 in memory of
University of Chicago professor
Paul Bator and presented annually
to a law professor under age 40,
recognizes Wright’s scholarship
and commentary in Antitrust and
Law & Economics.
“I am deeply honored to
receive the Federalist Society’s
2014 Paul M. Bator Award and
humbled to be added to a list of
past winners that includes so
many prolif ic and influential
scholars” said Wright. “The Federalist Society has since its inception stood for the principles of
rigorous analysis, open debate,
and full engagement in the marketplace for ideas. These principles are cherished and celebrated
at George Mason University
School of Law and I could not be
prouder to be associated with both
of these institutions.”
Wright currently serves as a
member of the Federal Trade
Commission, on leave from
George Mason University School
Of Law. He also holds a courtesy
appointment in Mason’s Department of Economics. Wright was a
visiting professor at the University of Texas School Of Law and a
visiting fellow at the Searle Center at the Northwestern University
School of Law during the 2008-09
academic year. Wright received
both a J.D. and a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA and a B.A. in
economics (with highest departmental honors) at the University
of California, San Diego.
Wright’s publications have
appeared in leading academic
journals, including the Journal of
Law and Economics and Journal
of Competition Law and Economics, and he has published more
than 60 articles and book chapters.
Wright has also testif ied at the
joint Department of Justice/ Federal Trade Commission Hearings on
Section 2 of the Sherman Act, the
Federal Trade Commission’s FTC
at 100 Conference, and the DOJ/
FTC Hearings on the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines.
Dean of the George Mason
School of Law, Daniel Polsby,
praised Wright for his “mastery of
empirical and theoretical
approaches to his subject, his
deep learning, lightly worn but
relentlessly deployed, and for his
commitment to his students. He is
one of the thought leaders in his
generation — and his students
love him.”

You can read the entire interview here.

Transcription

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