Sweden’s Lawspeaker, also known as “Lagman,” held the responsibility of memorizing and reciting every law during public assemblies a thousand years ago, and this tradition was also followed in other Scandinavian countries.
Lawyers Describe The Most Messed Up Court Cases They’ve Ever Seen
Crime is the one thing we’d all prefer wouldn’t come in many varieties.
Unfortunately, a quick talk with any lawyer over drinks and you’ll hear of some of the worst parts of society they’ve had to defend. While some might venture into the weird, there are those criminal cases which fall under the “horrific” and “depressing” category of humanity, like the stories people shared below.
Reddit user, HolyMotherOfDragons, wanted the inside scoop when they asked:
“Lawyers of reddit, what is the most f-cked up case that you have fought or seen?”
Doesn’t Matter If You’re Dead Or Not
“Client insisted on suing an employee who failed to show up to work which caused a contract to be cancelled.”
“The employee didn’t show up to work because he died.” ~ alejandrosalamandro
Maybe Think About That Before Having Children
“Worse I’ve heard was a divorce case where both parties fought to NOT have the kids stay with them. It’s so depressive to think about the children in that case.” ~ maximef1
Sitting Next To Someone, Knowing What They Can Do…
“In a pro bono program, I was assigned to handle the request of an inmate to be released after serving 2/3rd of his sentence. When I read his file, I discovered that he was convicted for kidnapping a woman, tying her to the right front wheel of his jeep and torturing her to death with some sort of home made flamethrower.”
“When I went to see the guy, he denied everything, and told me he was appealing the verdict (which legally was not possible anymore).”
“It was really weird sitting in a room with this guy, knowing what he was convicted of, and knowing that he’d been denying the conviction for almost 20 years.”
“Needless to say, his request to be released early was denied.” ~ ExistenceisObsolete
Lack Of Follow Through
“A sociopath in a psych ward making suicide pacts with vulnerable people and never following through. Charged with murder, determined he was too out of his mind to be accountable.”
“Gonna be in an asylum for the next two decades unless something major changes within the case” ~ expressiii
A Practical Joke Gone Wrong
“Case told to me by another lawyer on one of my cases: two guys decided to give a marijuana laced brownie to their co-worker without telling him it had marijuana in it… right before he started his shift… as a crane operator.”
“It went predictably badly, resulted in an accident and even their union agreed the guys should be fired.” ~ tintedpink
Keeping It All In The Family
“I am not a lawyer, I work for one.”
“We represented a family who tried to ruin a teenage boy’s life. They fabricated police reports, falsely claimed he stole expensive electronics from them, and took their claims to the very uninterested school the boy attended.”
“When cops tried to investigate, the family evaded the investigator and lied to him.”
“Why do all this? The family’s son was crushing on a girl they were hosting in their home.”
“She chose to date the boy in question over the son. All three kids were classmates.”
“The boy got a hefty settlement from the family. This case was outside our typical areas of practice, but they came from a friend of the attorney.” ~ No-The-Other-Paige
Perhaps Learn A Little Latin?
“Took a pro bono divorce case. The husband tried to attack me in the parking lot claiming I was screwing his wife.”
“He said no lawyer works for free so she must be screwing me.” ~ Thom803
Leaving A List Of Posthumous Demands
“Not my case, but I was sat in chambers waiting to be heard when it came before the judge…”
“A reasonably successful businessman had died, leaving a will in which he left all his business assets to his wife, on the condition that she destroy everything. Inventory, parts, records, office equipment, all of it.”
“If she refused, everything was to be given to the Hemlock Society, an organization in the States somewhere that advocates for assisted suicide.”
“Shortly after making the will, he committed suicide, having arranged for his death to be video recorded and the recording to be emailed to his wife and kids automatically. The lawyer didn’t say what the method of suicide was, but did say that it was traumatic for all who received the video, unsurprisingly.”
“The lawyer sought, and received, a consent order to amend the will to delete the destruction condition. He had the agreement of the Hemlock Society, which wanted nothing to do with a donation under those conditions.” ~ YVRJon
A Little Levity Before The End
“I’m here to provide comedic relief!”
“My buddy is an attorney and was working on a case against some company that was dumping pollution in a large, local body of water that had a direct opening to the ocean.”
“He gets a letter from an incredibly concerned local dude. He wrote this LONG ASS LETTER begging my buddy’s team to do all they can to win the case against the polluting company for the sake of the…mermaids that were living in that local body of water.”
“He had seen them often guys. He had been trying to befriend them for quite a while now and was concerned for their well-being and for the possibility that they would move out to the ocean to find a cleaner home if the company kept dumping pollution into their area. I wish I could find that pic of part of the letter.”
“In case you are as concerned as he was, fear not! My buddy’s team won the case and that company is no longer dumping their waste in that body of water” ~ Raccoon_Army_Leader
You Take The Case. You Keep Working. That’s The Job.
“A woman was alone with her baby after her husband got deployed. This was not long after the baby was born. Then the baby passed away, and the body had some strange bruising. The mother insisted the baby crawled out of her sight and fell down the stairs. The case ultimately got reassigned from our office, and the mother was pissed.”
“She told the primary lawyer on the case that she had indeed killed the baby. She basically bragged about it, and she had zero remorse at all. Seeing the infant’s autopsy photos was absolutely horrific.” ~ Fat-Pat_813
“Was she convicted?” ~ jazzygyal
“Yes, she ultimately got a fair bit of time.” ~ Fat-Pat_813
While it can never be easy to be assigned cases like the ones above, you just hope those involved in the handling of the case, as well as the verdict, are level-headed, reasonable people.
You know?
The complete opposite of the individuals they represent.
In 2001,Kenny Waters, a man who was wrongly…
In 2001, Kenny Waters, a man who was wrongly imprisoned 18 years for murder, was finally freed after his high-school dropout sister went to law school to prove his innocence. Tragically, Kenny Waters died in an accident 6 months after his release from prison. Conviction is a 2010 biographical legal drama film based on this […]
The post In 2001,Kenny Waters, a man who was wrongly… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Is Sex With People You Don’t Live With Now Illegal in the United Kingdom?
Obviously, 2020 has been an absolutely wild ride so far.
Yet, even in a year when headlines routinely outshine the most bizarre imaginations, some things still manage to be surprising. Such as the various news outlets this month which have been reporting that sex is now largely illegal in the UK. Or, more specifically, sex with people you don’t already live with. So what’s going on here?
Let’s take a closer look.
Photo Credit: iStock
The motivation
When you hear about a law like this, your mind might leap to antiquated, prudish, Puritanical motives surrounding sexuality, like how some U.S. states still technically have statues outlawing “sodomy.”
But that’s not what we’re looking at here.
In fact, the sex aspect is sort of incidental; collateral damage taken as a part of trying to repair a larger problem.
Photo Credit: iStock
It’s about the virus
Like pretty much the entire world, the UK has implemented lockdown restrictions this year to slow the spread of disease.
The things that are officially off limits by law (for now) are indoor gatherings, which, as Mashable reports, are defined as:
“when two or more people are present together in the same place in order to engage in any form of social interaction with each other, or to undertake any other activity with each other.”
Obviously, if you can’t go over to someone’s house to hang out, you can’t go over to have sex. At least, not without risking a fine.
Photo Credit: iStock
Is this new?
Sort of.
The main difference with the legislation that went into effect at the start of June is that before, the “guest” would be in trouble, but now, both/all parties involved could face consequences.
The main gist of the “stay the hell at home” guidelines really haven’t changed much, and in fact have generally loosened as the year has gone on.
Is there any way around this?
There are, of course, various exceptions to the lockdown rules, though certainly none of them are designed to give you an excuse to go get your freak on.
Social gatherings are still allowed in outdoor spaces, though outdoor/public sex is and always has been illegal and would likely get you into a whole lot more trouble than a simple lockdown violation, so no loophole there either.
Photo Credit: iStock
What happens to people who break this law?
Not much.
The default fine is £100 (about $123), which for most people is enough to sting but not enough to mess up your life. As with everywhere else, authorities in the UK really do not have the interest in nor the resources for running around punishing every last lockdown violation; the point of the law is get enough people to behave responsibly so that the virus can remain at least relatively under control.
For some, that may mean some more lonely nights.
What do you think of all this?
Let us know in the comments.
The post Is Sex With People You Don’t Live With Now Illegal in the United Kingdom? appeared first on UberFacts.
Was a Lawn-Obsessed Woman Responsible for Killing Pets? The Internet Has an Opinion.
Terrible neighbors can range from an unwanted annoyance to the reason you leave behind a dream home. The only thing worse than a neighbor who you find irritating is a neighbor you’re worried might be actively endangering you or the things you care about.
That, apparently, is the situation that Reddit user tdog945 found themselves in when they took to r/AmITheAsshole to get some perspective.
AITA? Suing my neighbor after she sprayed weedicide on my lawn from AmItheAsshole
So, what did Reddit think? Was OP in the right, or was the girlfriend correct in saying they’re turning this into a bigger deal than it is?
The answer was overwhelmingly…
1. Yeah, no, that Karen is wrong.
Source: r/AskReddit
2. Apparently this is something that happens a lot.
Source: r/AskReddit
3. The basic tenant of “no trespassing” certainly seems to apply.
Source: r/AskReddit
4. OP got a lot of love.
Source: r/AskReddit
5. Many believed a lawsuit was indeed the right way to go.
Source: r/AskReddit
6. Always expect the unexpected on r/AmItheAsshole.
Source: r/AskReddit
7. Literally get off my lawn, said all.
Source: r/AskReddit
8. Nobody was buying that the neighbor had no liability here.
Source: r/AskReddit
9. Beware people who do “nice” things for their own purposes.
Source: r/AskReddit
10. However…not everyone was sure OP had the cause and effect right.
Source: r/AskReddit
It’s hard to say in this case whether or not the neighbor was truly responsible for endangering or killing OP’s pets. When the thread got closed down they were apparently awaiting some kind of toxicology report to confirm. Either way, I think we can all agree, don’t go screwing with other peoples’ homes.
But what do you think about all this?
Chime in in the comments.
The post Was a Lawn-Obsessed Woman Responsible for Killing Pets? The Internet Has an Opinion. appeared first on UberFacts.
Police Officers Talk About the Smartest Criminals They’ve Ever Encountered
It’s been a permanent fixture of film, television, and literature for years. The cunning criminal who is so bright that they routinely outsmart the police and make them look foolish.
But this phenomenon exists in real life too, believe it or not.
AskReddit users shared their stories about especially smart criminals.
Let’s see what they had to say.
1. That is insane.
“My favorite was the guy who stole a post office mailbox off the street, repainted it, and then put it next to the night deposit box at a bank.
And hung an out-of-order sign on the deposit box. All the businesses came along and dropped off their deposits in the mailbox.”
2. Ahhhhh, the GPS.
“I worked crime scenes. This guy had attached GPS to the bottom of peoples cars who owned houses, he wanted to rob.
He did it to ensure they wouldn’t be showing up while he was ransacking the place.”
3. Almost got away with it.
“I remember an officer telling me about a B&E alarm he and his team responded to. No one was there to report the alarm, it must have been a security monitoring company that called.
When police showed up, everything seemed normal, most lights were off, and there was an employee still working. Explains he was there working late and must have set off an alarm.
They almost believed him until he said “uhh” before saying the name of the company he worked for. After that it was downhill but with a little more research he would have pretty much gotten away with it.”
4. On parole…
“There’s one guy I recently dealt with who is on parole. I stopped him in my city after he was looking to buy drugs (usually people come from all over to buy drugs and then leave). I issue him a warning and let him go as it’s pretty common and he sang like a bird regarding the people he was trying to buy from.
Anyway, the next day, I got a call from his parole officer who says he was alerted the guy was pulled over and wanted to verify that It was his guy that I stopped. I’m a little confused at first but he goes on to say that the day before, he was scheduled to meet with him but he had an excuse and bailed.
His excuse was that he was in the hospital. Well when he spoke with him the following day, he was able to provide documentation that he had entered the hospital day 1 and had left day 2. Well I had stopped him at 115 in the morning and after looking at the picture, it was 100% him.
Turns out the guy had checked in then out of the hospital on day 1, then in and out again on day 2. He then re arranged half the paperwork to make it look like he was in the hospital overnight which would make my car stop of him appear like I mixed him up with someone else as well as give him a valid excuse to miss their meeting.
Not sure what’s gonna happen to that guy but I thought it was pretty clever.”
5. It’s cold outside.
“Worked at a jail. After getting off work, I watched an ex inmate (homeless) being released, he walked over to a patrol car, looked me in the eye, and the elbowed the window in. He was walked back to the entrance and re-booked in. It was middle of January. He didn’t want to get too cold.
To the people talking about “Can’t break car windows.” That’s true. Also depends on the car. The patrol car they used was specifically old model. Used more for the perimeter of the jail unless other patrol cars were in the shop. Those windows had been replaced so many times. Idk if it’s the same material or what.”
6. The great state of Costco.
“A friend of my brother moved to Israel where for a period of time it was/is acceptable to drive with an American driver’s license.
He was pulled over for speeding, and when asked for his license, gave the officer his Costco card (Costco is a membership-based retail warehouse in the US and a few other countries. The exchange apparently went something like this: Officer: “Costco? What is Costco?”
Friend: “It’s the state I’m from.”
Officer: “That sounds made up.”
Friend: “There are lots of states you probably haven’t heard of. Have you heard of Arkansas? How about Idaho?”
Officer: “I guess not…”
Friend: “Well I’m from the small state of Costco.”
The officer didn’t have a response and wound up writing the ticket to someone with a Costco driver’s license. Friend framed the ticket and still has it hanging on his wall.”
7. It all adds up.
“One guy would print barcodes, bring them into home depot and stick them on merchandise in the $100 range. When scanned the items came up around the $10 range. Putting random barcodes on things isnt really illegal and super hard to notice. Guy two would come in an hour later and buy the underpriced stuff. Complete plausible deniability. They would then sell the stuff on Ebay.
Only reason they got caught is because the guy with the barcode printer/software cut the second guy out of the operation so guy 2 stole a bunch of barcodes, put them on the merchandise and paid for it immediately afterwards. He then proceeded to rat on the first guy and spilled the beans they had been doing this on a weekly basis for over four years.
Because we could only pin the one case on him, the burglary was dropped down to a pretty theft and he walked away with a few days in county and a small fine. Dude probably took homedepot for tens of thousands over the years.”
8. Fraud!
“I have a nice story from insurance/debt collectors.
There was this guy who was already in heaps of debt. Like more than a lifetimes worth of debt.
He proceeded to file several policereports for identity theft up to the point that he got protected from financial checkups – It was a temporary measure that were given to repeated identity theft victims. At the same time he had reported fake income to the IRS for the last couple of years to between 40 to 60 millions depending on the year.
So when he applied for credit cards and loans, they were unable to check his financial credit (Due to the identity theft protection) but they checked his tax returns which showed he had a massive income.
Got his loans and credit cards – emptied them out and left the country.”
9. Very clever…
“A while back, there was a series of thefts along the bus lines in my country. People’s things kept missing from one city to the next, and nobody had any idea what happened as things were presumably safe in the bottom of the bus which nobody except the driver had the access to.
What happened?
Apparently there were two guys, one of whom was really small. You get where this is going. The big guy would put the little guy in a suitcase, buy a ticket to somewhere, load him up with the rest of the luggage, and enjoy the ride, while the little guy went out, stole people’s electronics, jewelry, cameras and whatnot, then returned to his suitcase until the ride was over.
Not really sure how they caught them, but it was pretty amusing to read about, and i found the whole thing clever enough.”
10. This guy wasn’t messing around.
“There was an incident in Fargo ND where a guy wanted to steal electronics equipment. The store had plenty of alarms on it and generally cutting an alarm triggers an alarm so instead he cut ALL the alarms. This was before cellphones were really widespread and alarms were usually just connected to the phone line.
He found an access point to one of the phone companies big trunk lines (correction: 9 access points). Massive thick copper cables with tens of thousands of lines running through them. He cut through the whole thing with a circular saw, knocked out phone service to most of the town and robbed an audio store during the ensuing chaos.
There were no leads until a tip came in from another town where he’d pulled something similar. They hadn’t been able to pin that to him but had strong suspicions and he’d relocated to Fargo. So the cops pay him a visit. He refused to let them in because they didn’t have a warrant so the cops left to get one without leaving anyone to watch him and he split. When they came back they found the saw coated in copper dust and a lot of the stolen stuff.
He was in the wind for a while but even after he got caught he had another card to play. While being transported between prisons he used a key he’d made to unlock his shackles and climbed out the roof vent of the bus.”
11. In broad daylight.
“20 years ago a guy on Australia’s Gold Coast got away with a bank robbery in broad daylight.
He cased the bank for a while and discovered a pattern of the bank manager arriving about 30 minutes before anyone else each morning where he would leave the front doors unlocked so staff could help themselves in without a key or needing to wait for the boss to come and let them in.
One morning the crook dressed himself up for a busy day of office work and waited for the bank manager to arrive. As the manager was unlocking the doors he made his move, entering the building and threatening the manager with a gun. He got all the details he’d need to access the vault and so forth and then tied the manager up and stuffed him in his office.
When the staff arrived he told them that the manager had called in sick and that regional office had sent him in to do the open shop thing and no one batted an eyelid. This bank had a small walk in vault that normally only held about 30-50k on any given day but old mate had timed his robbery for the morning after business banking day when all the local small businesses would make their end of week deposits and reportedly got a score of close to 250k.
Once the vault was open he pulled his gun out and invited all the staff to enter the vault and locked them in. By this stage the bank was due to be open so when he went to leave there were a number of customers waiting to get inside to do their banking.
He told them all that there had been an issue with the computers and that the tech team had estimated it would take about 30 minutes before the issue would be resolved and that they couldn’t open until then.
Then he got into his car and drove straight to the airport and flew to Hong Kong and then disappeared.
To my knowledge the cops never caught him and never managed to find the money – they knew he’d have had to leave most of it in Australia somewhere because you can only take 10k aud in cash in any currency out of the country before customs pulls you into their interview rooms so the assumption was that he had to have an accomplice here who would funnel the money to him slowly over time.”
12. Never got caught.
“Several years ago in Cape Coral FL, a man waited on a sidewalk in front of a Publix grocery store and used a taser on an armored car guard carrying too bags of money.
A get away driver in a car with stolen tags pulled up, taser guy and money bags get in and they took off. Never caught.”
13. Small-town crime.
“Probably one of the smartest robberies in my small city.
One of the main streets is cut into a hillside and, as a result, there is a very steep and quite tall concrete-covered bank immediately behind the buildings. Between two buildings there is a gap that was filled at the street-end by an ATM.
To access it for filling, the security staff went through the next door building, out a side door and into the gap, which had the ATM at one end and the steep bank at the other. On the Friday before Christmas, when the ATM was to be filled to the brim, one of the robbers abseiled down the bank at night into the gap and waited for the guys to arrive to fill the ATM (they came early in the morning).
As they came through the door into the gap, he held them up, took the money, and took off through the building to an accomplice waiting in a van on the main street. Then the van took off on the main road out of the city and vanished.
After a big search, the police finally found the burnt-out van. Turned out the gang had driven it up a gorge road and had two other accomplices in cars at the top and bottom of the gorge who simultaneously drove really slowly into the gorge and held up the traffic so that no one was there to see them when they turned off down an access road into some bush.
They ended up being caught, because one of the gang was a former employee of the security company.”
14. Working the system.
“I worked with this one guy who had a lengthy record. He had a system for getting released if he got caught. After committing a crime, if the police were in pursuit and he knew he was about to be cornered, he would act insane.
His girl would play along with it telling the police that he was off his medication. The police would arrest him but then send him to a mental ward with papers instructing the ward to release to police once he was cleared. Once he was in the mental ward, he would cause a distraction that would make the person attending the desk with the file cabinet to leave said cabinet.
He would then crawl to the file cabinet, look for his “release to police” papers, and then would literally eat the papers. When the psych evaluators decided that he was stable enough to be released, there would be no instructions to send him to the police, and he would be released to the general public.
He did this about 10 times until police officers noticed him back on the streets. This stunt forced the state to change their procedure for detaining mentally unstable suspects.”
As someone who is pretty obsessed with crime, these stories were very interesting to me.
Now we want to hear from you!
Have you run across any wily criminals in your day?
Maybe as a cop, a lawyer, or in some other capacity?
Tell us about them in the comments!
The post Police Officers Talk About the Smartest Criminals They’ve Ever Encountered appeared first on UberFacts.
Lawyers Talk About Worst Way They’ve Seen People Get Screwed Over in Court
I really hope I never get in trouble with the law or have to go to court for any reason whatsoever because the whole justice system pretty much terrifies me and I don’t want to have anything to do with it.
So far, so good on my end…
But the fact is that a lot of people get royally screwed over in court. Sometimes it was their fault, sometimes it wasn’t
Here are some interesting answers from AskReddit.
1. You blew it!
“My client screwed them-self.
I’m doing landlord tenant stuff and my client was facing eviction over non-payment, but the client was withholding rent payments because of habitability issues in the apartment, no heat, high lead levels, vermin. This is gonna be an easy win for me.
Told my client continually to make sure they don’t spend the money, keep it but don’t spend it. Because if you show the judge you still have the money it looks real good for you in terms of making the judge believe that you’re withholding for good reasons.
We get up in front of the judge, landlord doesn’t have an attorney so I’m dancing inside, there’s no way I can lose.
I make my arguments and the landlord makes his.
Judge asks my client if they still have the money.
Client goes “nah I blew that shit at the casino last week”.”
2. That was fast.
“My wife is the lawyer.
Info: When children reach the age of majority if they do not continue studying and start working, it is not necessary to pay alimony.
Info: My wife’s client found a new lover, which unleashed the wrath of the ex-wife, who started asking for more alimony for her children.
Well to win the case, it was necessary to prove that the children were working, but they could not get any proof of it.
There was not much chance of winning, but they still went to court hoping that with the interrogations they could find information that would put them in evidence.
On the day of the trial the children did not go, only the mother and her lawyer were present.
Judge: Madam, tell me why your children could not come.
Mom: they could not get permission at work.
Judge:…
Lawyer:…
Mom: …
Another few seconds of silence.
Judge: well, that was fast.”
3. The truck is yours.
“I had a client who was trying to get away from an abusive ex and filed for a restraining order. He shows up to the final hearing and is making a big fuss about a truck that they bought during their marriage. He said it was just his, and she had no rights to it because their marriage was void.
I asked him on cross examination what he meant by that, and he said that he had already been married in another state when he married my client. He said that my client had no idea, but that it means their marriage is invalid and the truck was all his.
Not only is that legally inaccurate, the transcript of the hearing was promptly turned over to the police, who were actively investigating him for bigamy.
Oh, and the judge gave my client the truck along with a two year no-contact order.”
4. Major facepalm.
“I’m a lawyer, saw someone screw himself.
I work as a public servant in a criminal law judge’s office, and since I have a law degree I don’t normally do administrative work, though I get to be with the judge in some of the hearings.
Last month we had a huge drug trafficking case (I’m talking about 20 or more people involved, months of investigation, undercover agents, videos, audio, the whole ordeal). Hearing lasted three days.
Anyway when it was time for one of the defendants to be on the stand so the prosecutor could read the charges he was accusing him of (He was pleading not guilty, as he very loudly stated from the majority of the hearing, up until my boss -the judge- told him to shut up or he would be admonished, to which he replied “what are you gonna do, arrest me?” which, to be honest, was actually a bit funny).
The prosecutor, as part of the facts of his case, told him that “he was being accussed of selling, traficking and carrying x amount of x drugs, with the base of his operation being his house, where he lived with his partner” (Mind you, said partner wasn’t even in the hearing, she wasn’t arrested or anything as there was nothing tying her to the case) he said “wait up, I was the one selling the drugs, she didn’t do anything”.
His lawyer (a state assigned public lawyer) facepalmed so hard it’s actually recorded in the audio of the hearing.
He still pleaded not guilty.”
5. Happens more than you’d think.
“A witness for the plaintiff in a civil suit, who was a co-worker of the plaintiff testified very strongly against the company and in favor of the plaintiff. I questioned her about bias toward the plaintiff, if they knew eachother well, were friends, etc. She said, no just friendly co-workers, “work friends” at best. I pinned her to it.
When I got a chance to cross-examine the plaintiff, she had no choice but to burn her witnesses credibility, because no only were they very close friends, but they had become sisters in law just a few years before. (no, they did not have the same last name or anything, but I had done my homework).
I still don’t get why people want to fight small bias, by destroying their credibility, but … it happens more than you’d think.”
6. The age of consent.
“More of a case of screwing himself over, but here goes. This was a case another prosecutor in my office had a few years back. 30 year old defendant was charged with sexual assault of a child after he got his girlfriend’s 14 year old sister pregnant. She actually kept the baby so the police just waited and got a paternity test. No surprise, defendant was the father.
Defendant wanted probation; prosector refused to offer it. He decided to plead guilty and have a jury trial on punishment (here in Texas, you can choose to have the jury set punishment). Evidence mostly proceeded as expected. The victim testified to having consensual (aside from not being old enough to consent) sex with the defendant, getting pregnant, etc.. Paternity test introduced.
Defendant took the stand. His version of events was that he snuck into victim’s room at night, covered her mouth, and held her down while he forcibly had sex with her against her will. It seemed like his own lawyer had no idea that’s the story he settled on.
The jury deliberated about fifteen minutes before returning a verdict of 17 years (the maximum possible as charged was 20). When interviewed by the attorneys afterwards, one of them said they decided on 17 years so the defendant would never forget the age of consent in Texas again.”
7. A terrible story.
“A prior boss’s story:
They had a drunk-driver-kills-a-car-worth-of-people case at the time when they were a general practitioner. My boss was representing the family that got hit (one where the two kids and the wife had died, but the father had not) and wanted the college guy’s drunk-driving skin to be mounted on a wall.
This was back before Facebook was commonly used in Court proceedings and before tons of people realized that shit is too great for any attorney worth their weight in salt to pass up.
So, the kid (drunk driving college kid) had managed to get the judge’s sympathy during the first part of the hearing by saying he was sorry, haunted, never going to drink again, this was going to ruin his life, etc. The judge seemed to really be eating it up.
Then comes my boss and immediately burns this kid’s remorse to the ground by showing numerous Facebook statuses and photos of them binge drinking, partying, and even joking about driving drunk from the date of the accident up until a night ago. The kid looked like he was being forced to swallow hot coals and the judge was absolutely livid.
Needless to say, the kid had to do way more than just apologize and be remorseful after that.”
8. Drunk…again.
“My dad’s case. He was the equivalent of a Public Defender decades ago. There was this guy that would get caught for being drunk in public, public lewdness, etc. EVERY weekend. He seemed to draw the same judges and was pretty well known to everyone in the courthouse as an absolute lost cause.
One of the “regular” judges had him appear in his court again. The judge is ready to give him a prison sentence because he was driving a car this time, but the guy starts crying that he finally got a job out of town and was trying to turn his life around. Judge tells him as long as he never makes a mistake “in my town again” he would just drop the charges.
Well sure as hell the guy shows up the following Monday. Same judge. Driving drunk AGAIN. My dad now has his case. The judge tells him he gave him his final chance, to which the guy sobs and replies “I was leaving town, your Honor.
But my friends decided to throw me a going-away party.” The judge was not amused. My dad had to do everything he could to not laugh.”
9. Custody dispute.
“I was litigating a custody dispute on behalf of the mother in an incredibly conservative jurisdiction. One of the most common ways to get custody was to allege sex or porn addiction because the threshold for it was basically non existent.
For this hearing however, we lucked out with the judge, who I knew from other cases. Opposing counsel tried to “gotcha!” Me into settling before the hearing by showing me surprise sexts between mom and her new boyfriend.
This is, of course, not law and order and you can’t introduce surprise evidence. So we go through with the hearing, I object to the sexts, but say I would allow them to be ready into the record, in their entirety.
So the uptight very conservative local attorney gets to spend the next twenty five minutes or so reading sexts in open court occasionally asking if she could gloss over parts but no, I didn’t feel it would be appropriate. I’ll never forget hearing her struggle with the word nipple. It’s not even a dirty word!
But this was like the third hearing we had to amend custody because this guy felt his ex wife having a boyfriend meant she was a sex addict. They alleged the sexts happened while the kid was in Mom’s custody. But they based that on the timestamp of the screenshots. The timestamp on the texts was clearly at a time when the kid was not even around and mom was safe to get freaky over the phone.
The judge had heard enough of his bullshit and awarded attorneys fees and put in the order, consistent with the vexatious litigant statute, that if dad would continue to be liable for her attorneys fees if he kept pushing this shit.
It was the only joy I got from practicing family law.”
10. “The most badass thing I had ever seen.”
“I was a very new lawyer, with no bankruptcy experience. A partner sent me to bankruptcy court to try to make a claim as a creditor related to a $50 million building that was being sold.
Time and lack of knowledge will prevent me from accurately describing everything that went down but I will do my best.
The Court handled my client’s claim very quickly and easily at first. The Court ruled we were not a creditor because our claim was against a tenant, which was correct. (Note, we had purchased the claim from someone merely to try to somehow wedge our way into buying the property – which was very transparent to the Court.)
So I could just set back for the remainder of the hearing and watch the 2 premier bankruptcy attorneys go at it. One represented the debtor and the owner of the building; the other represented a secured creditor with a lien against the building
They absolutely hated each other on a personal level, and were arguing with great venom about the plan to sell the real estate.
There was a small break in the action while the judge took care of another matter.
When we came back, the secured creditor attorney told the Court the following:
His client (the creditor) had purchased controlling interest in the debtor (the owner of the building).
He had been directed to fire the other attorney.
He had been directed to withdraw the motion to sell the real estate.
He then did both there in the Courtroom.
I have practiced for almost 3 decades. It was the most bad ass thing I had ever seen, and was particularly noteworthy because the courtroom was packed with other attorneys watching and those 2 attorneys absolutely hated each other.”
11. A major backfire.
“A wife filed for a restraining order because she wanted the house during divorce. Husband has good job, like 200k per year. Employer finds out about restraining order, husband is fired. He was very specialized employee so only job he can find close to to house, ex-wife, and daughter is 50k.
House gets foreclosed. Child support at less than $500 per month. Wife has to get job as waitress. Four cars get repossessed.”
12. Off to jail you go!
“Had a criminal jury trial for misdemeanor Criminal Mischief over 4 years ago. State filed charges and kept amending the Information to the point where they left the ACTUAL VICTIM out of the trial and proceeded with the two eyewitnesses.
Well, one of the witnesses was my client’s ex and the other witness was the ex’s new GF. They claimed my client vandalized the ACTUAL VICTIM’s car. Client denied everything.
Well, apparently, the State and both Witnesses had no idea that the Ex had a outstanding warrant for not paying child support to MY CLIENT which created a motive for him to lie. Asked him if he was aware that he had a warrant out for his arrest on the stand. He didn’t know. The Judge excused the jurors. The bailiffs arrested the Ex on the stand. State rested.
Judge granted our Motion for Judgment of Acquittal because we had good case law for the victim not being there. Client walked away free and the Ex went to jail.”
13. A story from the jury.
“I sat on the jury of a man who was accused of molesting his 10 year old niece. He elected to testify in his own defense and his defense was: “I did it, but it was her idea.”
It was his third felony strike so he will be spending (with luck) the rest of his life in prison.”
Like I said, I really hope I never have to go to court in my entire life…
How about you?
Have you had any experiences with the justice system?
If so, please share them in the comments.
We want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The post Lawyers Talk About Worst Way They’ve Seen People Get Screwed Over in Court appeared first on UberFacts.
A Woman’s Story About Her Boyfriend Sharing Her Nudes With Family Sparked a Big Conversation
Issues around sharing intimate photos in the age of the smart phone have left a lot of people – and governments – flailing to catch up with new questions.
Almost everyone either has a story about trouble they’ve run into with nude photos, or knows someone who does. The most frequent version of this story is “I sent someone I trusted pictures and they ended up somewhere I didn’t want them to be.”
One reddit user on r/TwoXChromosomes had a variation on this story that left a lot of people shocked, and sparked over 1,000 replies in a giant conversation about toxic masculinity, shame, privacy, and the law.
I ( 24F) found out that my ( 25M) boyfriend has been sharing my nudes with his father.
…I found out only because I was scrolling through his phone and he shared them over text message.
His dad made disgusting sick comments like “that’s my boy” and “ dan [sic] she’s hot and wet, she’s a keeper”.
Never ever in my life have I ever trusted anyone as much as I trusted my boyfriend. I had never sent nudes to anyone before in my life because I was terrified something like this would happen.
– findmyiPad-
Things like this don’t just ruin someone’s day, or end a relationship, they can warp how a person sees themselves, and how they interact with the world, maybe permanently.
I ended up cutting off all contact with him and I am completely disgusted and so ashamed and embarrassed. I have not been able to leave my house in 2 days because I feel so objectified, used and I feel like complete trash.
I am not sure if I am going to take any steps against him legally because we were together for 3 years and I really don’t want to destroy the rest of his life with criminal charges. I am just really sick and confused right now.
I need some advice.
Thank you.
– findmyiPad-
It obviously wasn’t long before the replies started rolling in. First, we’ll get the obvious out of the way.
WTF? This is so sick
– Texcoco95
There was, naturally, every variation of “get tf out of there.”
As a guy, get out!
– jimmy-cell
A ton of people sympathized, with sometimes shockingly similar experiences.
I was not in the same situation as you exactly, but I will say I had some similar and didn’t want to ruin their lives with charges. The man in my case went on to ruin the lives of other women. I regret every day not pressing charges
– claireupvotes
Many offered words of encouragement and reminders that – even though this feels like it shouldn’t need to be said – people who find themselves in this situation aren’t the ones at fault. You feel bad, but that doesn’t mean you did wrong.
I’m sorry you feel embarrassed, but for heaven’s sake don’t be ashamed. No one who has been assaulted (and yes, ask any therapist on the planet – this is a form of assault, whether it’s against a woman OR a man) should feel ashamed. YOU did nothing wrong.
– remberzz
The thread contains a lot of pondering on how elements of male culture can encourage this type of thing.
I don’t understand the mentality, but I’ve sadly seen it before. My ex’s dad would commend him on getting hot girls etc. It was disgusting, and led to our breakup.
– THE_DUCK_HORSE
This typifies many of the responses:
I think its most likely a weird insecurity thing. They do it to confirm that other males approve of their choice and that others will see them as sexually successful.
– bikesexually
Overall, the thread was 100% supportive, which was refreshing to see.
Allow yourself time to process this betrayal of trust and then when you feel like you’ve found your feet, you can start making decisions on how to move forward.
– WadesUnbridledAnger
A few users attempted to dive into the legal options.
Unfortunately a good amount of US states only class sharing nudes without consent as a misdemeanor. I know because someone threatened me with that and in my state it’s only a misdemeanor.
– anti_citizen
But it quickly became clear that if you want to truly weigh your legal options, talk to a lawyer. Laws on these things still vary a lot from state to state.
In Illinois it’s a felony.
Edit: Also in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Texas for the first offense, according to cybercivilrights.org. Plus in Missouri, merely threatening to distribute images is a felony in itself.
In New Jersey a first offense is a “third degree crime” with the possibility of 3-5 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, which sounds pretty felonious to me.
Oh and shoutout to Massachusetts, Mississippi, South Carolina and Wyoming, where it’s still not a punishable offense on any level.
– dangerouslyloose
Reading through this thread hit close to home for me because I recently tried to help a loved one navigate the same types of questions, and it’s never easy.
But it is encouraging to see culture shift toward a more supportive attitude to victims of this breeches of trust.
The post A Woman’s Story About Her Boyfriend Sharing Her Nudes With Family Sparked a Big Conversation appeared first on UberFacts.
Illinois Sold More Than $3 Million Worth of Marijuana on the First Day of Legalization
As a former Chicagoan, all I can say is…why the hell didn’t this happen when I lived in Illinois? I know, I know, things are moving along and more and more places are legalizing marijuana, but it sure would’ve been nice…
And now I live in North Carolina, and I really don’t think legalization is coming anywhere near this state anytime soon…
But back to the story. Though it was passed into law in 2019, it became officially legal to purchase marijuana for recreational use in Illinois on January 1, 2020.
And apparently, people were pretty fired up about it (who could have expected?).
On January 1st, the first day of legal sales, the state sold nearly $3.2 million of weed. The exact numbers were 77,128 transactions totaling $3,176,256.71. Not bad for a one-day haul, huh?
If you’re curious, the state hasn’t yet released figures for how much tax revenue that will work out to.
Customers spent almost $3.2 million on legal weed in Illinois on Wednesday, officials say. More than 77,000 customers bought products at dispensaries on the state’s first day of recreational marijuana sales. https://t.co/WrpBamnmb1
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) January 2, 2020
Toi Hutchinson, senior advisor to the governor for cannabis control, said:
“As we start a new decade, Illinois has achieved a monumental milestone, launching the legalization of cannabis in a way that includes communities left behind for far too long, creates good jobs and expunges thousands of records for those who have lost out on opportunities and ends prohibition.”
Illinois became the eleventh U.S. state to legalize weed, joining Alaska, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.
You have to be 21 years old and have a government-issued ID to buy weed in Illinois. Non-residents of the state can also buy marijuana but in smaller quantities. And keep in mind that all purchases must be made in cash, because cash is king baby!
And also because weed is still illegal at the federal level, and banks are wary about working with an industry that is both illegal and legal at the same time.
Time for a road trip?
The post Illinois Sold More Than $3 Million Worth of Marijuana on the First Day of Legalization appeared first on UberFacts.
A Judge Who Once Sentenced a Man to Prison Swore Him in as an Attorney
It was twenty years ago when Hillsdale County Circuit Court Judge Michael Smith sentenced Robert VanSumeren to 70-240 months in prison for robbery. This November, Smith showed everyone the meaning of a second chance by swearing in the 40-year-old as the county’s 169th attorney.
Joined by his wife, Dana, his two sons, and his sponsor, Marie Reimers, VanSumeren has officially completed his unbelievable redemption story, which began on the wrong side of Judge Smith’s courtroom all the way back in 1999. After his parents split up during his teenage years, VanSumeren turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with the pain. Unfortunately, those vices led to same damaging decisions, including robbing a gas station with a BB gun. Following an unarmed bank robbery, VanSumeren found himself in front of Judge Smith, who sent the newly convicted felon to prison.
Spending six years behind bars taught VanSumeren a valuable lesson and inspired him to turn his life around. Upon his release in 2005, the formerly troubled teen showed he would not squander a second chance at success. VanSumeren studied hard and earned a bachelors degree from Western Michigan University in 2006 before finishing up his masters in 2009. Yet, that wasn’t enough for the former inmate.
“Even as I started working on my bachelor’s and master’s in humanities, law kept floating back through my mind, but the obstacle was I didn’t know if I could make it,” he said.
Michigan attorney sworn in by judge who sent him to prison 20 years ago – @freep https://t.co/T1Ey64EPdP pic.twitter.com/GYTDGLohd8
— MI Supreme Court (@MISupremeCourt) November 26, 2019
In 2015, VanSumeren began his law degree at Wayne State University. While enrolled, he ironically learned from the same federal prosecutors and former judges who he detested back in his teenage years. Despite self-doubt about whether he should be open about his past, the father of two came to realize that he had to embrace all aspects of his story in order to move forward in his quest to become an attorney.
“In the community of people who have had legal troubles but have gone on to be professionals, there’s a debate about whether to disclose or not to disclose, to kind of go on with your life or talk about it,” he said. “I’ve chosen to talk about it and tell my story, and when people find out they’ve generally been very supportive.”
VanSumeren earned his law degree in early 2018 before passing the bar exam in July of that same year. However, he still had another significant hurdle to pass: getting the approval of the Character and Fitness Committee. After a lengthy process, the committee gave its blessing and recommended VanSumeren for approval to join the State Bar of Michigan.
"One person who helped VanSumeren deal with that resentment is a Michigan Department of Corrections counselor named Joseph Beaman…helped him redirect his angry energy toward prisoner reintegration programs, including a writing workshop." #OffenderSuccesshttps://t.co/BhHXgTHhr6
— MichiganDOC (@MichiganDOC) November 26, 2019
His journey from inmate to attorney would not have been possible without the support of Reimers. Now a staff attorney at Lakeshore Legal Aid, Reimers befriended VanSumeren during their first year of law school. She commends her former classmate for his perseverance and believes he is a great example for others to follow.
“It takes a lot of courage to go to law school and pass the bar exam knowing that there’s something in your past from when you were 19 that might keep you from becoming an attorney,” she said. “I’m just so proud of him.”
Judge Smith echoed Reimers’ sentiments for Hillsdale County’s newest attorney, stating that VanSumeren should be commended for his turnaround. That reaction is obviously rare in any courthouse, so let this case show you that it is never too late to write a redemption story.
Case closed.
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