HOUSTON -- The former chief financial officer of indicted Texas financier R. Allen Stanford's business empire will plead guilty to charges alleging he helped swindle investors out of $7 billion, his attorney said Wednesday.

He lost his criminal trial, his appeal, his business empire, his Canadian citizenship, his freedom, much of his fortune and now he risks losing his prison nickname and the British peerage from which it was derived.

Stanley Sokolowski, assistant district attorney for Anderson County, has joined a select group after recently becoming board certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Rocker Tommy Lee's helicopter pilot has been detained on suspicion of DUI after flying too close to a police helicopter and ignoring direction from a flight tower.

Quintin Garza III of Oceanside was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving Thursday morning after he allegedly caused a two-car crash that killed a 29-year-old father of a newborn baby girl, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Shasta County Avoid the Five team made six DUI arrests from Saturday to Sunday morning.

Michael Phelps has admitted to smoking cannabis and apologised after a picture of the record-breaking Olympian with a bong pipe was published in a British tabloid today.

DECEMBER 2--A group of teenagers working at a Minnesota nursing home abused and sexually humiliated elderly residents suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia, prosecutors allege. The six young female caregivers were named yesterday in criminal complaints charging them with a variety of cruel behavior at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Albert Lea, a city in southern Minnesota. Only two of those charged--Brianna Broitzman, 19, and Ashton Larson, 18--are named in the complaints since they were not minors when the alleged abuse occurred. According to District Court complaints filed against Broitzman (pictured above left) and Larson (above right), nursing home residents were spat upon, spanked, improperly touched, and tormented by the teenagers earlier this year. Excerpts of the misdemeanor complaints can be found below. Broitzman allegedly poked one resident's breasts, spit into the mouth of another elderly person, and "put her bare butt" in the face of a Good Samaritan Society resident identified as "S.W." Larson once "inserted her finger into a resident's rectum," spit water on another "vulnerable adult," and would deliberately bathe a resident in a rough manner so the elderly man would get an erection. The minor caregivers are identified in the complaints by their initials and dates of birth. Broitzman, charged with 11 criminal counts, and Larson, charged with 10 counts, face a year in jail or up to a year in jail on each of the raps. (8 pages)

Criminal law is the area of law that deals with those who commit crimes. Crimes are generally defined as deviant behavior that violates social norms. What is considered a social norm and what is considered deviant behavior is determined both at the federal level and the state level, as are the punishments for various crimes.

Certain constitutional protections apply to a person charged with a crime. There are also certain procedures that are roughly the same from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The following is a brief description of what happens when a person is charged with a crime.

Richmond police are asking for the public's help in identifying the victim of a fatal hit-and-run and the two vehicles that struck him.

Camillus Police have made an arrest in a fatal hit and run crash. 48-year-old Timothy L. Henry of Marcellus is charged with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, a Class D Felony

Richmond police are asking for the public's help in identifying the victim of a fatal hit-and-run and the two vehicles that struck him.

FORT CARSON, Colo. — For the past several years, as this Army installation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains became a busy way station for soldiers cycling in and out of Iraq, the number of servicemen implicated in violent crimes has raised alarm.

Federal authorities reported Monday that many significant crimes, including murder, declined in the first six months of 2008 in the United States, when compared with the same time period a year earlier.

The Harrell brothers say their father was a strict disciplinarian, but being raised with a hard hand has apparently paid off.  The R&B quintet, now known as Brutha, signed to Island Def Jam/Good Fellas Entertainment in 2007 and the lead single, "I Can't Hear The Music," featuring Fabolous, from their self-titled debut (out Dec. 23), entered the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs  chart at No. 92 two weeks ago.

A Russian man who bombed a McDonald's restaurant in St. Petersburg a year ago, injuring six people, was jailed for 15 years on Monday, Russian news agencies reported.
Fyodor Kovalchuk was reported by Russian media to have said during his trial last year that his attack was triggered by Western media criticism of a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he warned of a new Cold War.

In the City of Brotherly Love, a burglar preyed on a group of sisters Friday, breaking into a Torresdale convent and stealing money and personal effects, Philadelphia police said.

A court has heard a northern Victorian teenager charged with murdering her stepfather had been threatened by him.

Vancouver police sealed off three downtown blocks late Sunday night as they investigated the city's first murder of the year.

After taking over charge, the newly appointed Commandant of 89-Bn BSF Mr Manjinder Singh, visited battalion headquarters at Sonari and also talked to the companies deployed at Dinhata sub-sector along the Indo-Bangladesh border. He held a meeting with the local gram panchayat pradhan, GP members and villagers of the border area at Sahebganj Border Out Post. In course of the interaction he inquired about the everyday problems they face. The villagers and others apprised Mr Singh in details of the current situation in the area.

After taking over charge, the newly appointed Commandant of 89-Bn BSF Mr Manjinder Singh, visited battalion headquarters at Sonari and also talked to the companies deployed at Dinhata sub-sector along the Indo-Bangladesh border. He held a meeting with the local gram panchayat pradhan, GP members and villagers of the border area at Sahebganj Border Out Post. In course of the interaction he inquired about the everyday problems they face. The villagers and others apprised Mr Singh in details of the current situation in the area.

A prisoner is on the run today after being sprung from a secure van on the way to court with the help of two armed men in balaclavas.

Staff at HMP Elmley in Sheerness, Kent, were astonished when they saw the tiny aircraft flying over the walls late at night two days before Christmas.

Satyam's disgraced ex-chief and founder Ramalinga Raju has confessed to his crime, says a court report.

The Prisoner Ombudsman in Northern Ireland has been asked to investigate the death of an inmate at Magilligan Prison in Co Derry.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey's highest court is grappling with one of the thorniest issues facing criminal justice today: what to do in cases where witnesses to a crime have been threatened or intimidated by defendants to the point where they refuse to testify in court.

Welcome to the Criminal Law Practice Area Community from LexisNexis&reg. Visit this page often to learn about recent news items and case law developments related to the practice of criminal law. You will also find useful information about CLE seminars and LexisNexis products and services for the criminal attorney.

Gone were the expensive designer suits, golf clubs and devil-may-care smile.

Friday morning, the once-celebrated O.J. Simpson appeared for sentencing in a Las Vegas courtroom wearing a navy blue jail jumpsuit with shackles binding his hands and feet.

The Gwinnett County Commission Tuesday approved a measure to add an assistant district attorney to serve on a metro-area drug enforcement task force fighting the illegal narcotics trade.

NEW YORK — A construction official falsely billed $1.2 million for supplies not delivered to clean up a toxic ground zero skyscraper in exchange for cash, clothes and trips to the Caribbean, prosecutors said Tuesday...

A lot of students enter law school with a vague desire to enter the field of criminal law -inspired, perhaps, by near-constant Law and Order re-runs and movies like A Time to Kill and Twelve Angry Men. Many of these students will change their minds as they make their way through school, ultimately opting to practice in other areas of the law. But for those still considering a career in criminal law, or who just wanted to learn a little more about the realities of the field, OPIA's November 16th World of Law panel featured several successful criminal attorneys who were ready to share what they have learned over the years. The panelists spoke of their current jobs and the paths they took to get there, giving students advice and tips they had picked up along the way.

Nov. 20, 2008 (The Volokh Conspiracy delivered by Newstex) -- Earlier this year, Eric Holder--along with Janet Reno and several other former officials from the Clinton Department of Justice--co-signed an amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller. The brief was filed in support of DC's ban on all handguns, and ban on the use of any firearm for self-defense in the home. The brief argued that the Second Amendment is a "collective" right, not an individual one, and asserted that belief in the collective right had been the consistent policy of the U.S. Department of Justice since the FDR administration.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - City and state police have closed their investigations into last summer's shooting of Arkansas' Democratic Party chairman without offering an explanation of why the attack occurred.

A Toronto accountant has won more than $2.4-million U.S. at the World Series of Poker. Darus Suharto, 39, left the final table in Las Vegas in the wee hours yesterday morning with a sixth-place finish and a cheque for $2,412,510. He beat out more than 6,835 opponents who had entered the World Series.

MIAMI (AP) - A former mob prosecutor who is now a federal judge says a former Boston FBI agent on trial for murder was key to major New England Mafia investigations.

Meyers Nave attorney Alan Cohen prepared an Amicus Brief on behalf of the League of California Cities (LOCC) in Yount v. County of Sacramento that was filed with the California Supreme Court on October 5, 2006. The Supreme Court will decide whether a defendant who pleads no contest to obstructing or resisting a police officer, where the factual record in support of the plea is vague, may subsequently sue the arresting officer for excessive use of force under 42 U.S.C Section 1983.

A nonprofit group that helps abused and neglected children finds itself in the odd position of opposing Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard’s attempt to help young victims of crime.

Casey Anthony appeared before an Orange County judge this morning for a first-appearance that lasted less than one minute.

A senior Contra Costa County Deputy District Attorney who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of raping a colleague is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 21, according to the California attorney general's office.

Prosecutors in the case of a mentally ill patient accused of hacking a psychotherapist to death with a meat cleaver decided Tuesday not to challenge a psychiatrist's finding that the killer is not mentally fit to stand trial.

This blawg alerts readers to new law-related books, articles and papers; library conferences; New York Supreme Court slip opinions and appellate division decisions, as well as other constitutional law opinions.

My friend Orin Kerr is a leading expert in the area of cybercrime and the author of the Computer Crime Law casebook, the first legal casebook in this area.  He is also a blogger at the Volokh Conspiracy, one of the most-visited legal weblogs.  Orin has just posted a draft to SSRN of his forthcoming essay, Criminal Law in Virtual Worlds.  It's quite timely, given the ongoing discussion of Arno's recent post.  Here's the abstract:

Dozens of owners of illegal guns took their weapons to church Saturday - with the blessing of Brooklyn prosecutors.

Earl Simmons, better known as rap star DMX, has been indicted in the state of Arizona on charges of identity fraud in an attempt to avoid paying medical bills for a hospital visit.

Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick recently continued his efforts to control the local judiciary by filing an Article 78 proceeding against two Syracuse City Court judges, Langston C. McKinney and Kate Rosenthal, seeking to restrain them from such "unlawful" arraignment practices as scrutinizing felony complaints for legal sufficiency and refusing to consider, for purposes of sufficiency or bail, information that the District Attorney had labeled "confidential" without providing that information to defense counsel.

A former assistant director of the Detroit office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States for his role in illegally helping immigrants, including employees of LaShish restaurant.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his wife, Carlita, left the Manoogian Mansion — perhaps for the last time

Megan Meier's story is tragic -- the 13-year-old Missouri girl hung herself in 2006, unable to cope with the verbal abuse suddenly heaped upon her by a supposed friend on MySpace. But three consumer advocacy groups and 14 law professors have urged a federal judge not to let federal prosecutors put all Internet users in legal jeopardy in their zeal to punish someone for Megan's death.

An aide to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who was linked to a telephone tapped by the FBI has resigned, Kilpatrick's office confirmed Wednesday.

MOSCOW — A Russian court heard testimony on Monday from the author of an American anti-racketeering law, who argued in support of a novel legal theory that would allow the Russian government to apply the law in a $22 billion suit against the Bank of New York for its role in a money laundering scandal in the late 1990s.

WASHINGTON — Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, a legendary political figure closely tied to the rough-and-tumble history of his home state, and who wields outsize influence over federal spending, was indicted on Tuesday on seven felony counts of failing to disclose gifts that he received from an oil services company.

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by using politics to guide their hiring decisions for a wide range of important department positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility and independence, an internal report concluded Monday.

ALBANY — Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer is a target of a continuing investigation by a state ethics commission into his administration’s handling of travel records, people who have been briefed on the inquiry said on Tuesday.

Bradley Harrison was driving a rented Dodge Durango from Vancouver to Toronto in the fall of 2004 with 77 pounds of cocaine in the trunk when a police officer pulled him over, found the drugs and arrested him.

PHILADELPHIA — A fired TV newscaster was charged Monday with hacking into the e-mail of his glamorous younger co-anchor hundreds of times for more than two years, as leaked information about her personal life helped lead to her own downfall.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County prosecutors have charged former Los Angeles Rams kicker Tony Zendejas with drugging and raping a female customer of his Pomona sports bar in January.

JACKSON, Miss. — A rape charge against Rikki Rockett has been dropped after authorities determined that the Poison drummer was not in the state at the time of the alleged crime.

PHOENIX — DMX has been arrested at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on outstanding warrants.

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese police on Tuesday arrested a 77-year-old man suspected of killing his entire family with a hammer, including a 4-year-old granddaughter, a police official said.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Don Imus, responding to criticism about racial remarks on his radio program, said on the air Tuesday he was trying to ''make a sarcastic point'' about unfair treatment of blacks in the criminal justice system but had been misunderstood.

Criminal law cases are those in which the state or federal government charges and prosecutes an individual for an act or omission which is legally defined as a crime. Crimes are defined by local, state, and federal governments. This means that criminal law cases can vary greatly depending on how a crime is defined and punished by a particular municipality. The purpose of criminal laws is to protect “societal interests”; primarily the safety and well being of citizens.

Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III was in custody Thursday on charges that he slipped ecstasy into the drinks of technology executives, maintained a warehouse to store cocaine and tried to conceal his illegal conduct with bribes and death threats.

The time crept by so slowly and painfully that the 23-year-old Columbia University journalism student had decided it was time to end her life.

The sensationalist media inquest into Sen. Barack Obama’s associations has cheapened the national debate. It has also exposed the hypocrisy and double standard of the conservative media.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors have further charged a former Baker & McKenzie partner, indicted last fall on securities fraud charges, with stealing from a client escrow account.

The assembly election in Karnataka will reach its climax on Sunday when the votes are counted. One good thing this election is that the number of candidates with criminal backgrounds has decreased compared to the 2004 poll.

Sarah Anne Walker used to tell her friends that life was worth enjoying. She never needed to be reminded in return.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Four Philadelphia police officers will be fired, two others will be disciplined and a supervising sergeant will be demoted because of the violent beating of three suspects caught after a shooting, the city's mayor and police commissioner said Monday.

Two studies contend that racially disparate effects of the war on drugs are more evident in Virginia and Virginia Beach than in most of the country.

BOGOTÁ—Colombian police received a tantalizing tip last summer about a key fundraiser for the Black Eagles, a dangerous criminal enterprise that has grown out of the largely disbanded right-wing paramilitaries. Accused of extortion and killing several policemen, the man led two gangs based near the borders of Peru and Ecuador. Police put him under surveillance, but the gangster was so careful—avoiding cellphones and corresponding only through Internet cafes—that they couldn't find a shred of evidence.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty -- facing criminal charges stemming from an illicit affair -- exchanged a brief hallway hug Tuesday after hearings in 36th District Court.

Criminal law cases are those in which the state or federal government charges and prosecutes an individual for an act or omission which is legally defined as a crime. Crimes are defined by local, state, and federal governments. This means that criminal law cases can vary greatly depending on how a crime is defined and punished by a particular municipality. The purpose of criminal laws is to protect “societal interests”; primarily the safety and well being of citizens.

COVINGTON, Ky. - Two part owners of last year's Preakness winner went on trial Tuesday on charges they defrauded clients out of millions in a case being watched closely by the thoroughbred industry because the men could lose their share of the horse.