|
|
|
Italy court upholds Berlusconi tax fraud verdict
Legal Career News |
2013/05/14 00:10
|
Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence were upheld on the first appeal Wednesday in a case that could see him barred from public office for five years.
In Italy, defendants are legally considered innocent until all appeals are exhausted, and Berlusconi's lawyers are expected to appeal the case to the nation's highest Court of Cassation once the reasoning for the decision is published.
Still, the ruling, which comes just days before prosecutors wrap up closing arguments in his sensational sex-for-hire trial, raises the question of whether Berlusconi's days as a political force are numbered.
His center-right forces are allied with the Democratic Party in a grand coalition, and although Berlusconi holds no governmental posts he remains influential. It was his decision to head the center-right coalition, after initially saying he would move aside for younger leaders, that gave a boost to his forces in February's election campaign, finishing a close second to the center-left. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Man pleads not guilty to smuggling fake Marlboros
Legal Career News |
2012/07/03 09:03
|
A Chinese national pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he smuggled more than $1 million worth of fake Marlboro cigarettes into the United States.
Lin Xiao Wei, 32, who is charged with selling, dispensing and fraudulently importing a counterfeit tobacco product, entered his plea in U.S. District Court in Providence and was ordered held.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln Almond noted that Wei had entered the United States on a visitor's visa and has no ties to the country, so he deemed him a flight risk. Wei did not request bail, but Almond said his public defender could request it later.
Federal prosecutors say a confidential source arranged for Wei, who uses the name "Marvin," to ship a 20-foot container of counterfeit Marlboros from China to Miami. The shipment was labeled as leather products headed for Rhode Island.
Prosecutors also say Wei discussed a deal to sell to the source tens of thousands of fake Viagra tablets for more than $1.3 million and said he would be able to make a counterfeit version of a new Nike sneaker before it was released in stores in the United States.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court rules NY town's prayer violated Constitution
Legal Career News |
2012/05/15 22:18
|
An upstate New York town violated the constitutional ban against favoring one religion over another by opening nearly every meeting over an 11-year span with prayers that stressed Christianity, a federal court of appeals ruled Thursday.
In what it said was its first case testing the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled the town of Greece, a suburb of Rochester, should have made a greater effort to invite people from other faiths to open monthly meetings. The town's lawyer says it will appeal.
From 1999 through 2007, and again from January 2009 through June 2010, every meeting was opened with a Christian-oriented invocation. In 2008, after residents Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens complained, four of 12 meetings were opened by non-Christians, including a Jewish layman, a Wiccan priestess and the chairman of the local Baha'i congregation.
Galloway and Stephens sued and, in 2010, a lower court ruled there was no evidence the town had intentionally excluded other faiths.
A town employee each month selected clerics or lay people by using a local published guide of churches. The guide did not include non-Christian denominations, however. The court found that religious institutions in the town of just under 100,000 people are primarily Christian, and even Galloway and Stephens testified they knew of no non-Christian places of worship there. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Riders stuck on snow-trapped train sue NY agency
Legal Career News |
2011/12/28 10:36
|
Subway riders stuck all night in a train trapped by snow after a blizzard sued a transportation agency on Tuesday, saying officials told them it was simply an act of God.
In court papers describing last year's ordeal, they said they had no heat, food, water or bathroom facilities while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority kept promising help.
The city was all but paralyzed when the storm hit on Dec. 26, 2010, with 2 feet of snow piled around an A train on elevated tracks in Queens. Inside were about 500 passengers who spent eight hours there in freezing temperatures.
The conductor refused to allow passengers off the train, resulting in a deplorable imprisonment, said 22 of them named in the suit, which was filed in Queens state Supreme Court.
They are seeking unspecified damages from the New York City Transit Authority, part of the MTA, which runs the nation's largest mass transit system. The subway alone has a daily ridership of more than 5 million.
Manhattan attorney Aymen Aboushi said the stranded passengers decided to sue after a year of meetings with transit officials convinced them that suing was the only way to get the MTA to pay attention. He said he's handling the case pro bono in hopes of forcing changes in the emergency response system to avert a similar nightmare. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
RI pension overhaul may head to the courts
Legal Career News |
2011/11/18 09:05
|
Rhode Island is taking dramatic steps toward fixing one of the nation's most underfunded public pension systems, but the true battle with public-sector unions may be just beginning.
State lawmakers ignored jeers from public workers and the threat of a lawsuit Thursday to pass sweeping changes to the pension system covering 66,000 active and retired public workers.
The legislation is designed to save billions of dollars in future years by backing away from promises to state and municipal workers that lawmakers say the state can no longer afford. Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an independent, said he will sign the bill.
Public-sector union leaders promised a court challenge before the final votes were even cast.
The attorneys are going to make a lot of money, Philip Keefe, president of Local 580, which represents social service, administrative and technical workers. If this is overturned, it will be you, me and every other taxpayer that is on the hook for billions.
Supporters acknowledged that a lawsuit was inevitable but said the bill was thoroughly reviewed for any legal problems. Supporters said one of the reasons for the bill was to ensure there's money available when today's workers retire. |
|
|
|
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
