Recently a Boston court upheld a lawsuit against the city and police for violating a citizen’s right to video the police in public. As reported from PetaPixel.com this is great news for citizen rights. David Michael Cantor, a Phoenix Criminal Defense Lawyer, discusses how he has seen similar cases in the last year and that it is encouraging to see the courts uphold this right.
As a side note PetaPixel does sell a Photographers Rights Grey Card Set which has the dual purpose of getting your white balance right and helping your know your rights.
Today’s topic starts with an article in the current issue of GQ and food critic Alan Richman’s latest review. The title and opening illustration give you a hint that this review is not going to be a good one. Alan describes going to M. Wells on a few occasions. the first two were unannounced and simply to eat. By the third visit he had spoken with the owners to get an offsite interview and let them know he had already made plans to dine there in a few days. The food part of the review is pretty fair and would probably tempt a number of people to go for dinner. Then Alan’s story takes a turn for the worse. The service takes an already ho-hum reputation and nose dives into what one of his compatriots describes as “the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had.”
In the review Alan comments about how the waitstaff was innatentive and careless. This has unfortunately become a bit of the norm in the US dining establishments and the workplace in general. At the third dinner they wait 45 minutes and finally wave down another waitress who seemed less than happy to be taking their order. He leaves and gets an email the next day from the co-owner blaming him for having a bad dining experience and then the fireworks go off: he is accused of sexual assaulting the waitress. Needless to say Alan is pretty shocked and replies back asking to meet his accuser.
The article is really well written and we recommend picking up the latest issue and reading it for yourself.
In David’s video his recaps these events but then goes a little further regarding the poor service and some of Alan’s thoughts on the “Too Cool to Care” attitude. The hipster mentality may be going too far or too ironically for many of Americans to appreciate any longer.
What do you think?
With the upcoming Labor Day weekend in mind David Michael Cantor, a Phoenix Criminal Defense Attorney, wants to remind you that AZ DPS is stepping up its Patrols. Specifically Davids wants to point out that there will be Highway Patrol officers in 10 mile intervals along Interstates 40, 10, and 8 going to and from New Mexico and California.
Labor Day weekend is one of the most dangerous of the 6 holiday weekends in Arizona each year. In the last 5 years there have been 72 fatalities from car wrecks. DPS Officers will be targeting speeders, tailgaters, and other dangerous drivers, including those not wearing seat belts. David reminds you that even though you cannot be pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt they can cite you with it as an additional offense.
If you are going to have more than 2 drinks call a cab.
Today David Michael Cantor,a Phoenix Criminal Defense Attorney, talks about a recent notice of claim filed by two former top officials and a captain on administrative leave from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office for $22 Million. The three individuals are former Chief Deputy David Hendershott, former Deputy Chief Larry Black, and Captain Joel Fox. All three were caught red handed in 2010 when another MCSO commander, Frank Munnell, wrote a memo describing years of widespread mismanagement and misconduct under Hendershott’s leadership.
David finds this notice of claim to be a waste of taxpayer time and money.
Here is the full story:
“Two former top officials and a captain on administrative leave with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office who are at the center of abuse-of-power allegations have jointly filed a $22 million notice of claim asserting that county and state officials, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and private investigators schemed to destroy their careers.
Their claim was filed Aug. 15 with the county and the state by former Chief Deputy David Hendershott, former Deputy Chief Larry Black, and Capt. Joel Fox, who is currently an employee.
Hendershott and Black each demand $7 million for pain, suffering and loss of future earnings. Fox demands $8 million. Hendershott and Fox have already filed other notices of claim and lawsuits against the county and state.
Hendershott and Black were fired by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the wake of a 2010 memo by another top commander, Frank Munnell, who alleged years of widespread mismanagement and misconduct under Hendershott’s leadership. A subsequent probe by Babeu’s office upheld some of the allegations, resulting in their firings.
Fox remains on paid administrative leave pending an ongoing inquiry into his conduct. Fox has earned $77,667 while on paid administrative leave.
The new claim asserts that Munnell was negligent and malicious in his memo and that he “made many untrue statements, either intentionally or based upon lack of knowledge.”
The claim alleges that Munnell spent time working with the FBI and Arizona Attorney General’s Office “in some type of undercover or agent position,” working with investigators and attorneys to secretly record a meeting and build a case against the three.
The former employees also allege Munnell did not disclose his undercover work to Arpaio when he delivered the memo, nor that he had been collecting evidence against the sheriff. They also claim Munnell was so frustrated that no indictments had been issued against Arpaio and others that he “took it upon himself in retaliation to issue his memo intending to harm the victims.”
The claim asserts that other high-ranking employees within the Sheriff’s Office helped Munnell destroy the claimants’ careers.
“It is well known that Munnell and his allies in the Sheriff’s Office have longstanding vindictive grudges against Hendershott, Fox and Black because of their positions and influence within the Sheriff’s Office,” it said. It also said the relationship was further strained because of Hendershott’s decision to not promote Munnell.
The claim asserts that a conspiracy against the Hendershott, Fox and Black expanded to include Babeu and private investigator Keth Sobraske, who led Babeu’s inquiry into Munnell’s allegations.
“The report is a bunch of conclusions, speculations, unsupported judgments and assumptions that are just not true,” the claim said.
Montana-based attorney Ed Moriarity, who filed the claims, said he will file a notice of claim against Babeu next week. He declined further comment, saying the claim speaks for itself.
“There’s a whole different side to the story here, as you can see,” Moriarity said.
The claim names Arpaio, sheriff’s employees, Babeu, Sobraske and his firm, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, the Board of Supervisors, County Manager David Smith and former state Attorney General Terry Goddard and his employees.
All declined comment because of pending litigation.”
Today David Michael Cantor, a Phoenix Criminal Attorney, talks about DNA testing and the Drenth Case. Drenth was found shot last year near the Arizona state capital and the cause of death is still unanswered. At the time he was part of an internal investigation of Phoenix police officers and fraud.
One step of the investigation was to collect DNA samples from a variety of police and city employees. Although 330 other had submitted their DNA for testing 6 were holding out. Their reason for doing so was because they did not want to be entered into the nationwide DNA pool.
David’s question here is why arent all police officers required to do this? They have to be fingerprinted when they start working as an officer of the law, why not go ahead and get their DNA? What do you think?
Here is the Drenth story from a year ago:
“Phoenix police officials continued their intense investigation Tuesday into the shooting death of Sgt. Sean Drenth, whose body was found outside his patrol car south of the state Capitol on Monday night.
Drenth, 34, found near 18th Avenue and Jackson Street, died of an apparent gunshot wound between 10 and 11 p.m. Monday.
Police officials didn’t release many details, saying that they had more questions than answers and that they are not ruling anything out.
“We are doing everything humanly possible to find out exactly what occurred,” Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris said.
Drenth, a 12-year veteran with the Police Department, was awarded the Medal of Valor in 2004 for helping rescue people from a burning apartment building. He was married to Colleen Drenth for 13 years.
The Police Department lost contact with Sgt. Drenth less than an hour before the Arizona Capitol Police found his body in an alley near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.
He was shot in an open area where police officers are known to sit in their cars and work on paperwork and still keep an eye on what is going on.
Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman, said that many police vehicles are single-officer units and that Drenth didn’t have a partner.
“As the officer, you use your discretion on when you need a backup and what calls you take by yourself,” Crump said.
Officials declined to discuss weapons Drenth may have carried or whether there were signs of a struggle.
“We are looking at all of the evidence, and we will run through everything,” said Sgt. Steve Martos, who is also a spokesman for the department. “It might be too early to determine.”
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon headed to the area shortly after 11 p.m. and described the scene as somber.
“There were about 30 or 40 officers, and I saw the emptiness and shock in their eyes,” Gordon said.
Drenth was the last Phoenix police officer to be promoted to sergeant. The city implemented a freeze on promotions in the department shortly after December 2009 as one of the ways to manage its budget crisis.
Drenth had been working in the South Mountain Precinct for about a week after being transferred from the Squaw Peak Precinct in central and north-central Phoenix.
He requested the move and was among several officers who transferred as part of a citywide shift in precinct boundaries that took effect this summer, Martos said.
Drenth’s death is the latest blow to the Police Department, which has faced several high-profile incidents over the past year.
Earlier this month, South Mountain police Officer Richard Chrisman was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Danny Frank Rodriguez while on a domestic-violence call.
This week, Squaw Peak Precinct Officer Sutton Wohlman was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault in the choking of his girlfriend.
And in March, Michael Johnson, the city’s only African-American council member, was pinned to the ground by South Mountain Precinct police Officer Brian Authement, igniting a citywide debate on race relations between police and the south Phoenix minorities.
“It’s a difficult time for the Phoenix Police Department for a number of reasons, but we remain focused with the same professionalism and vigor for the job that we had before,” Martos said.
Johnson, who represents the area where Drenth’s body was found and is a former Phoenix police homicide detective, said it was too early to determine the circumstances of Drenth’s death.
“There are just not enough details to elaborate or speculate on anything,” Johnson said.
Councilman Claude Mattox, chairman of the City Council Public Safety and Veterans Subcommittee, received a call shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday alerting him of Drenth’s death.
Mattox, who arrived in the area around 1:30 a.m., said officers were told to take advantage of counseling services provided by the city if they needed them.
Drenth’s death shows that Phoenix police officers “are out there day and night, literally putting their lives on the line for the residents (of) Phoenix,” Mattox said.”
In todays blog post David talks about the recent dismissal of charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) over raping Nafissatou Diallo, a hotel chambermaid. Back in May DSK was arrested after Diallo told investigators that she was attacked while cleaning his hotel room. This lead to DSK’s stepping down from heading the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and all but destroying his chances of running for France’s Presidency.
After the 3 month long ordeal the DA has decided to drop all charges in the case. The reason: Diallo is not a credible witness. Without the ability to prove what happened in that room the defense attorney would be able to clear DSK of the charges. While questions remain over what indeed happened in that hotel room one thing is certain: there is no criminal case to be made.
Today David Michael Cantor a Phoenix Criminal Defense Attorney talks about a brief filed by the American Bar Association with the Supreme Court regarding ineffective council. This could dramatically effect how Post Conviction Relief is handled and help to reduce the time an innocent person spends in the justice system. In Arizona it is known as a Rule 32 Post Conviction Relief Petition.
Here is the story from the American Bar Association:
“A defendant’s fair trial right isn’t protected if he receives ineffective assistance of counsel at the trial stage and again at his first appellate opportunity to raise the claim, the ABA contends in an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ABA filed the brief (PDF) in a Supreme Court appeal by Luis Mariano Martinez, who was convicted of sexual contact with a minor in Arizona. The brief cites the ABA Criminal Justice Standards, according to a press release.
“Many states, including Arizona, designate post-conviction proceedings as the preferred or mandatory forum for litigating an ineffective of assistance of trial claim … for the first time,” the ABA brief says. “The ABA respectfully asserts that counsel representing a defendant at that proceeding should provide the same quality of representation—that is, effective assistance of counsel—as is constitutionally required of counsel at trial.”
Martinez claims his trial lawyer failed to object to inaccurate testimony by a prosecution expert about the reasons for victim recantations. He claims his appellate lawyer filed a notice of post-conviction relief saying she could find no colorable claims, and she didn’t tell him about the filing or his need to file a pro se petition within 45 days.
SCOTUSblog has called the cert grant in Martinez v. Ryan “a big deal in habeas law.”"
The news never ceases to amaze. Todays topic deals with a West Tennessee DA accused of using assets seized in drug busts for personal use. He used multiple cars for personal use and having a number of firearms at home “for personal safety”. There are even reports of drugs being sold by some employees and of inmates using Crack from they stole. All in all this is too much for Phoenix Criminal Defense Attorney David Michael Cantor who feels that the DA should simply be fired. No response has come from the DA at this time.
More from ABAJournal
“A state auditor’s report claims oversight of property seized from West Tennessee drug dealers was so lax that jail inmates on a work detail smoked confiscated crack cocaine and a prosecutor drove seized luxury cars.
The prosecutor, District Attorney General Hansel McCadams, is accused of occasionally using a variety of items confiscated by the 24th Judicial District Drug Task Force, report the Jackson Sun, the Times Free Press, the Associated Press, WSMV.com and NewsChannel5.com.
McCadams is accused of driving a seized BMW Z-3 also used by other officials, as well as a Cadillac CTS, though it wasn’t clear whether McCadams drove the vehicles for his drug enforcement duties or his personal use, according to the report (PDF). He is also accused of using a Harley Davidson motorcycle, a golf cart, a go-cart, a four-wheeler and a trailer.
The report says McCadams returned a confiscated handgun and two assault rifles he had kept at his home for personal protection, along with three heat-imaging devices he kept there. He also is accused of allowing dignitaries to use a drug task force helicopter to fly to high school football games. The Sun was not able to reach McCadams for comment.
An administrative assistant for the drug task force is accused of stealing and selling seized drugs and pawning seized jewelry. The inmates were performing maintenance tasks at a shop area for the drug task force when they discovered the drugs.
The report cites a lack of adequate oversight. An independent prosecutor has been asked to determine whether any charges are warranted, the Jackson Sun reports in a different article.
NewsChannel5.com released this statement by McCadams: “We agree with the recommendations of the audit, and have immediately adopted policies and procedures to incorporate these recommendations. … We believe the new policies will guard against any future occurrences.”"
Recently a Chandler police officer was reprimanded for approaching a Judge regarding a teenagers traffic violations. As David Michael Cantor, a Phoenix DUI Lawyer, discusses this is a serious miscalculation on the officers part.
Here is the Arizona Republic Story:
A Chandler police lieutenant has been reprimanded after an internal investigation found he had made a city judge “extremely uncomfortable” by coming to her courtroom to talk about a teenage friend’s traffic case.
Lieutenant Lucas Hunt, who supervises about 30 patrol sergeants and officers, got a letter of reprimand for unbecoming conduct after a May 24 conversation before City Court Judge Maria Brewer and a police officer about the juvenile’s tickets.
Brewer “felt he was asking her if there was something she could do to take care of the tickets,” the report says.
She said she felt Hunt did more than just ask about options, she surmised that Hunt was trying to “put information out there in the hopes that she would take care of the ticket.”
The teenager, the son of a friend of Hunt, attends Valley Christian High School in Chandler, where Hunt is an assistant junior varsity coach. With four moving violations, the youth was facing the loss of his driver’s license, and Hunt said the boy’s father asked him how to proceed.
Hunt said he went to court to ask such questions as how the family could retain a public defender, whether traffic school was an option, and “what can we do about this.”
Hunt, a former Traffic Unit supervisor who has been on the force about 20 years, told department investigators he had not written a ticket for a juvenile driver in about 15 years and was unaware of the process.
Although investigators concluded that Hunt showed poor judgment in discussing the tickets with the judge, they found that he did not use his influence to try to reduce or dismiss the four moving violations, the report says.
Hunt said he had already discussed the tickets with the sergeant who issued them, the Traffic Unit lieutenant and someone in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, but they had not answered his questions, according to the report.
“Lieutenant Hunt never made a specific recommendation about dismissing or reducing any charges,” wrote the professional standards commander. “However, this incident made Judge (Maria) Brewer and Officer (Scott) Williams feel extremely uncomfortable and gave the impression of impropriety.”
Hunt never named the teen or the sergeant who ticketed him, did not have a copy of the citations, and never asked the judge to reduce or dismiss them, investigators found.
Still, both the judge and Williams told investigators that it was inappropriate for Hunt to praise the student. Hunt described the juvenile as a “good kid” attempting to get home before curfew, the report says.
Williams said he believes “Lieutenant Hunt specifically contacted the judge to help out his friend.”
Hunt provided enough information about the traffic case that Brewer recognized the juvenile when he appeared, and she felt compelled to change the venue to another courtroom and another judge.
The letter of reprimand will stay in his personnel file for three years, said Sgt. Joe Favazzo, a spokesman. Hunt has no other complaints, which expire after three years, in his file, Favazzo said.
Neither Brewer nor Hunt would comment on the incident.
“The investigation concluded that he did not attempt to fix a ticket, but as a department, we don’t want a uniformed officer to address the court in this manner, and we felt it fell under the category of unbecoming conduct,” Favazzo said.
Today David Michael Cantor, a Phoenix Criminal Defense Lawyer, talks about the upcoming recall election of Arizona Senate President Russle Pearce. David talks about how a Pearce supporter, Franklin Bruce, filed a notice of appeal in an attempt to call the election off. However despite these attempts to stop the recall Judge Hugh Hegyi of Maricopa Superior Court decided to throw out the case.
Here is more from CNN:
An Arizona judge ruled Friday that a special election to recall state Senate President Russell Pearce, the primary sponsor behind a controversial anti-illegal immigration law that a federal court struck down in April, can be held November 8 as planned.
In an 11-page ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Hugh E. Hegyi rejected nearly all of the arguments alleging problems with the recall petition.
The suit was filed by Franklin Bruce Ross, who backs Pearce and who alleged problems in the way the recall petitions were filled out. The suit cited as an example the language in the oath sworn by the circulators of the recall petitions did not state that the signatures collected were “genuine” or the “functional equivalent.”
But Hegyi concluded that the legislation concerning recall elections does not mandate that the oath contain the word “genuine.” “It merely requires ‘an’ oath that the Petition signatures are genuine, but does not prescribe a specific oath that will accomplish that objective,” the judge wrote.
In this case, the requirements of the law — which he described as constitutional — have been met, he said.
“Obviously, I’m pleased,” said Thomas Ryan of Chandler, Arizona, a lawyer who represented the petition-drive organizers Citizens for a Better Arizona. “It’s a big victory for the 10,000-plus people who signed that recall petition to get rid of their senator.”
In an e-mail sent to Ryan, Lisa Hauser, the attorney representing Pearce supporter Ross, said she would appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court. She did not immediately return a call from CNN seeking comment.
In May, the group Citizens for a Better Arizona submitted petitions to Arizona’s secretary of state, defendant Ken Bennett, who certified that they contained 10,296 signatures — 2,540 more than the required number.
At the time, Pearce did not respond to requests to comment on the recall campaign, but said of his supporters: “I am so grateful that some of my friends have stepped forward to oppose this recall and defend the truth. The personal, hurtful attacks by people who don’t even live in Arizona must stop. Working together, we can bring Arizonans together and move our state forward.”
His supporters have formed their own group, The Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall.
Pearce, a Republican, sponsored Arizona Senate Bill 1070. The measure would have required local police, while enforcing other laws, to question the immigration status of anyone they suspected of being undocumented. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said the measure overstepped Arizona’s authority.
Before becoming a state senator in 2001, Pearce spent 23 years as a Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy. He is known for his tough stance against illegal immigration and continues to introduce such legislation.
