Overlawyered » Paul Minor

June 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 05:04:47 +0000

“Law Prof Threatens Suit over University’s Plan to Reinstitute Single-Sex Dorms” [ABA Journal, WSJ Law Blog; John Banzhaf vs. Catholic U. in Washington, D.C.]
Mississippi: Dickie Scruggs files motion to vacate conviction in Scruggs II (DeLaughter case) [Freeland, YallPolitics] Before defending Paul Minor’s conduct in cash-for-judges scandal, review the evidence [Lange, YallPolitics and more]
Woman who filmed cop from own yard charged with obstructing his administration of governmen [BoingBoing]
East St. Louis, Ill. jury awards $95 million in sexual harassment, assault case against Aaron’s rental chain [ABA Journal]
Connecticut unions demand investigation of conservative Yankee Institute think tank [Public Sector Inc.]
“Court Upends $1.75M Award, Finding Plaintiff Lawyer’s Remarks Prejudicial” [NJLJ]
Hold it! San Francisco debates bathroom rights for schoolkids [C.W. Nevius, SF Chronicle]

Tags: colleges and universities, Connecticut, Dickie Scruggs, Paul Minor, San Francisco, Washington D.C.

February 25 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:56:56 +0000

“Lawyer held in contempt for advising clients to retake foreclosed home” [Ventura County Star, earlier]
Some perspective on Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s plans: about half the states curtail some or all public-sector unionism [Barro]
Guy who sued over Jimmy Carter book offers his side of story [Turley, earlier]
“Disbarment recommended for litigator Chesley over fen-phen fees” [NLJ, PoL, previously on scandal] Kenneth Feinberg affidavit in case draws scrutiny [Steele/LEF, Frank/PoL]
Mississippi: “Minor, 2 ex-judges disbarred by state Supreme Court” [Sun-Herald, related on scheduled resentencing, earlier]
“AIG Ended Up Having To Pay Millions For the Duke Lacrosse Stripper Lawsuit” [Business Insider, earlier]
Labor Department hotline to put workers in touch with private lawyers [Fox Biz, Wood/PoL]
Underage man on hook for child support to older woman [seven years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud, mortgages, Paul Minor, Stan Chesley, wage and hour suits, Wisconsin

High court lets stand Paul Minor conviction

Walter Olson — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:03:00 +0000

Despite much speculation that the Court’s rollback of the law of “honest services fraud” might help his case, the justices yesterday “let stand without comment a ruling by a federal appeals court that upheld most convictions of the lawyer, Paul Minor, and the judges, John Whitfield and Wes Teel. The men were convicted for their roles in a complicated scheme involving loans for the judges and allegedly favorable rulings in civil cases involving Minor.” [AP/Biloxi Sun-Herald, YallPolitics]

Tags: Paul Minor

Mixed Fifth Circuit decision in Minor-Teel-Whitfield appeal

Walter Olson — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:39:13 +0000

The Fifth Circuit has overturned (PDF) that portion of the convictions of Mississippi trial lawyer Paul Minor and two judges based on what is known as federal program bribery, while upholding the trio’s convictions for mail fraud and racketeering based on violations of state bribery law. The latter set of convictions, however, could be undermined should the U.S. Supreme Court strike down as unconstitutional the concept of “honest services” fraud. [ABA Journal, Freeland and more and yet more, Y'AllPolitics; our earlier, extensive Minor coverage]

Harper’s commentator Scott Horton and New York Times editorial commentator Adam Cohen have long defended Minor as the target of a supposed political prosecution premised on “vague allegations”, contending (to quote Cohen) that his crime “does not look much like a crime at all” and is based on things that “everyone” does in the Mississippi legal system. But the Fifth Circuit sharply rebukes this view of the case, laying out in some detail (quoting the ABA Journal) the nature of the corruption involved:

Structured as a short-term “balloon” loan that had to be renewed every six months, after the accumulated interest was paid, “the arrangement allowed Minor to keep Whitfield on a string while Minor held the bank at bay,” states the 68-page opinion, explaining the government’s theory of the case concerning this one judge. Minor directly or indirectly made the vast majority of the payments on the $140,000 in loans to Whitfield, the opinion notes, and little or none of the money apparently was spent on Whitfield’s judicial campaign.

Minor also repaid the $25,000 loan he arranged for Teel, which was deposited into the judge’s campaign account. However, neither judge reported the loans as required on campaign disclosure forms, the opinion states.

Each judge subsequently made rulings in a case that allegedly may have been influenced by their financial relationship with Minor. However, the legally required connection between federal funds the judges received [emphasis added] and their rulings was not established, the 5th Circuit found.

There are indeed plenty of legitimate questions — which hardly raised their heads for the first time in this case — about the armory of powers that federal prosecutors have developed over many years in their efforts to go after state-level corruption. But that this was an episode of grotesque corruption, and that Minor’s misconduct went far beyond anything remotely defensible as politics as usual, should by this point be apparent even to Harper’s and the Times.

Tags: Mississippi, Paul Minor, prosecution

“‘I’ll take care of it’ — with five words, a billionaire transformed into a felon”

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:09:38 +0000

Kings of Tort, the new book on Mississippi’s Dickie Scruggs and Paul Minor scandals by Alan Lange (YallPolitics) and Tom Dawson, is now out. Its website links to reviews and other angles of interest.

P.S. A blog reaction from Tom Freeland.

Tags: Dickie Scruggs, Mississippi, Paul Minor, scandals

November 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:05:12 +0000

Judge cites Oregon elder abuse act in barring animal rights activists from harassing elderly furrier [Zick, Prawfsblawg]
After fraud accusations against Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein, politicos race to return his many donations [NYT, AmLaw Daily,
DBR and more, Ashby Jones/WSJ Law Blog and more (Ponzi investments could exceed $1 billion, per FBI)]
Ontario court ruling may invite U.S. class action lawyers to take on more projects in Canada [Kevin LaCroix]
“Mississippi Cardiologist Won’t Go to Prison for Online Dating” [Balko, Freeland]
Manuscript in the mail: “Kings of Tort”, Alan Lange/Tom Dawson book on Dickie Scruggs and Paul Minor scandals, which now has its own website and will go on sale Dec. 2;
A “cultural institution destroyed” in Louisiana: more on proposed FDA ban on raw oysters [NYT, earlier]
Update on Google Books settlement [Sag, ConcurOp]
Mark Steyn on the Zack Christie case and other annals of knives-in-schools zero-tolerance [NRO, Steyn Online via Skenazy]

Tags: Dickie Scruggs, FDA, Google, Mark Steyn, Paul Minor, prosecution, Scott Rothstein, zero tolerance

Paul Minor appeal

Walter Olson — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:36:49 +0000

A Fifth Circuit panel is looking closely into whether the disgraced attorney’s payments to Mississippi state judges had enough of a nexus to federal programs to trigger the application of the federal bribery statute. Tom Freeland explains (and has more).

Tags: Paul Minor

April 20 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:10:49 +0000

Boy fatally shoots stepbrother at home, mom sues school district as well as shooter’s family [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
Problem gambler sues Ontario lottery for C$3.5 billion [Toronto Star]
Cop declines training in which he’d be given Taser shock, and sues [Indianapolis Star]
Ultra-litigious inmate Jonathan Lee Riches scrawls new complaint linking Bernard Madoff, Britney Spears [Kevin LaCroix]
Just to read this update feels like an invasion of privacy: “Judge to Hear Challenge to $6M Herpes Case Award” [On Point News, earlier]
“Best criminal strategy: join the Spokane police” [Coyote Blog] More: Greenfield, Brayton.
Will mommy-bloggers be held liable for freebie product reviews? [Emily Friedman, ABC News, earlier]
Update: “Fifth Circuit says no bail for Paul Minor” [Freeland]

Tags: advertising, Canada, Federal Trade Commission, Indiana, Jonathan Lee Riches, lottery, Paul Minor, police, public employment, schools, Washington state

RFK Jr. defends Paul Minor

Walter Olson — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:35:51 +0000

Over the years we’ve traced some of the shifting theories by which it’s been argued that once-prominent attorney Paul Minor was railroaded and didn’t really deserve conviction in that seedy Mississippi cash-for-judges scandal. Now America’s Most Irresponsible Public Figure®, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has started banging his bowl in Minor’s cause, prompting Alan Lange to do what Kennedy does not do, namely provide supporting documents and links by which the interested reader can check out the actual details of the Minor-Whitfield-Teel scandals rather than taking someone’s word for it.

P.S. Tom Freeland analyzes the legal issues in the Minor oral argument, and follows up. P.P.S. Freeland’s reaction to the RFK Jr. work is not a placid one.

Tags: Paul Minor, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

June 5 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:04:22 +0000

“I believe it’s frivolous; I believe it’s ridiculous, and I believe it’s asinine”: Little Rock police union votes lopsidedly not to join federal “don/doff” wage-hour lawsuit asking pay for time spent on uniform changes [Arkansas Democrat Gazette courtesy U.S. Chamber]
Must-read Roger Parloff piece on furor over law professors’ selling of ethics opinions [Fortune; background links @ PoL]
Too rough on judge-bribing Mississippi lawyers? Like Rep. Conyers at House Judiciary, but maybe not for same reasons, we welcome renewed attention to Paul Minor case [Clarion-Ledger]
American Airlines backs off its plan to put Logan skycaps on salary-only following loss in tip litigation [Boston Globe; earlier]
U.K.: Infamous Yorkshire Ripper makes legal bid for freedom, civil liberties lawyer says his human rights have been breached [Independent]
In long-running campaign to overturn Feres immunity for Army docs, latest claim is that military knowingly withholds needed therapy so as to return soldiers to front faster [New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey on CBS; a different view from Happy Hospitalist via KevinMD]
Profs. Alan Dershowitz and Robert Blakey hired to back claim that Russian government can invoke U.S. RICO law in its own courts to sue Bank of New York for $22 billion [WSJ law blog, earlier @ PoL]
Minnesota Supreme Court declines to ban spanking by parents [Star-Tribune, Pioneer Press]
Following that very odd $112 million award (knocked down from $1 billion) to Louisiana family in Exxon v. Grefer, it’s the oil firm’s turn to offer payouts to local neighbors suffering common ailments [Times-Picayune, UPI]
AG Jerry Brown “has been suing, or threatening to sue, just about anyone who doesn’t immediately adhere” to his vision of building California cities up rather than out [Dan Walters/syndicated]
Virginia high school principal ruled entitled to disability for his compulsion to sexually harass women [eight years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: airlines, California, child protection, environment, ethics, Jerry Brown, labor unions, law schools, Louisiana, Minnesota, Paul Minor, prisoners, racketeering and RICO, Russia, United Kingdom, wage and hour suits

Overlawyered » Paul Minor

June 24 roundup

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