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Court upholds bondsmen's right to solicit business
Headline News | 2007/09/10 18:58

With phone in hand and dialing finger at the ready, bail bondsman Carl Pruett turned out to be a faster gun than the uniformed folks in reaching people with outstanding arrest warrants. That got him in trouble not only with the law, but with his fellow bondsmen. Drumming up business by calling alleged criminals before they were picked up put the lives of officers in danger and gave the bad guys a reason to flee. And someone on the lam who is already carrying a bond could cost some other bondsman dearly.

Six years ago, the Harris County Bail Bond Board, which regulates the bond industry, told Pruett to stop calling. Officials said he was breaking a local rule that banned certain solicitations. And they threatened to suspend his license to do business.

Pruett fought back with a lawsuit against the board and Harris County and recently, after a protracted legal fight, a federal appeals court ruled he and fellow bondsman Scott Martin had a First Amendment right to consult public records, then solicit business by phone.

Calling times restricted

The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that state-imposed restrictions on "commercial speech" were unconstitutional, but agreed with the state law restricting solicitation calls between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m.

Essentially, Pruett and Martin used public records to troll for people with outstanding warrants, and then called them to offer their services.

Constable offices, the county and other municipalities use those same records to mail thousands of letters every month to people with open warrants for bad checks, unreturned DVD rentals, unresolved traffic violations and other nonviolent criminal cases.

The 5th Circuit ruled that Pruett and Martin had the same rights to contact those people.

"The statute does not prevent attorneys, law enforcement officials or anyone else from alerting someone that he's the subject of an open warrant," the court said. "Harris County cannot give such notice itself and then claim that restricting notice by others is necessary to the safety of its officers and the public and the prevention of flight."

County Attorney Mike Stafford said the county didn't create or enforce the state law, but intervened to prevent bondsmen from "tipping off" alleged criminals. He said protecting officers from possible violence is a legitimate objection and the county will likely appeal the latest decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

David Furlow, who represents Pruett and Martin in the federal lawsuit, hailed the decision as a "vindication of First Amendment rights." But he said perhaps more importantly, the courts action sent a loud message to fellow bondsmen who saw Pruett and Martin as unscrupulous competitors.

"The largest bail bonding companies with large investments in Yellow Pages ads and large existing bases of criminal defendant clients, they wanted to restrict those and keep other bail bondsmen from contacting them," Furlow said.



Law firm wants school district to pay $1.8M
Headline News | 2007/09/07 12:53

The law firm that represented parents in their case against Seattle Public Schools' race-based admissions policy before the U.S. Supreme Court is seeking nearly $1.8 million in fees from the school district. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in June that the policy, which used race as one of several "tiebreakers" in deciding who gets into popular high schools, was unconstitutional.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who voted with the majority, said in a separate opinion supporting his decision that racial balance is a worthy goal for school districts and that districts can use other methods to achieve it.

That opinion has both the district and the parent group, Parents Involved in Community Schools, declaring victory. It's one reason the district, which spent about $434,000 on its portion of the seven-year battle, doesn't believe it should have to pay the plaintiffs' fees.

Technically, the parents group still has to get a U.S. district judge to declare them the "prevailing party," said Seattle Public Schools attorney Shannon McMinimee.

McMinimee says it's "disingenuous" for the law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, to go after money when the firm took the case pro bono. But firm spokesman Mark Usellis said "pro bono" means their clients don't have to pay.

"The thing that's really important to us in a civil-rights case is that Congress specifically and explicitly wrote into the law that if the government is found to have violated citizens' civil rights, then the prevailing party should seek fee recovery," he said.

Most governments can argue, as Seattle Public Schools is, that they don't have much money. But going after the fees helps deter other government bodies from violating civil rights, Usellis said.

The parents who sued the district in 2000 did not seek damages but asked the court to force Seattle to stop using the race-based tiebreaker that prevented their children, who are white, from attending Ballard High School. The district did, in 2002, but continued to fight for the policy in court, eventually making it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether to award the fees to the firm. If the firm wins, the fees likely wouldn't be covered by the district's insurance carrier, McMinimee said. So the money would have to come out of the district's $490 million general-fund budget.



New York law firm hired in Conecuh landfill fight
Headline News | 2007/09/07 10:57

A grassroots organization formed to fight a proposed 5,100-acre landfill in Conecuh County has hired Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s law firm, which specializes in environmental cases, Kennedy's law partner said Thursday. Word that Kennedy & Madonna agreed to work with the opposition came a week after Conecuh County commissioners stepped out of an executive session and voted to ask state legislators to include the landfill issue on the primary ballot in February.

"This one is a complex case," said Kevin Madonna, "We do a lot of cases involving communities where industry has done harm to drinking water supplies. This case is a chance to protect the community before damage is incurred."


Madonna said the large landfill proposed for the rural community in Conecuh is "a classic case of an out-of-state corporate interest bringing garbage in from out of state and dumping it on the people there, taking the money and running. It is a fundamentally unfair situation for the people there."

Phillip Kinney, who works for the public relations firm Matrix in Montgomery, is a spokesman for Conecuh Woods whose principals are based in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area. He disagreed with Madonna's characterization of the project.

"Conecuh Woods is not an out-of-state corporation," Kinney said, "it is an Alabama LLC, which was incorporated by Jimmy Stone and David Kirby. No other corporation or individuals have any interest in Conecuh Woods."

Kinney said that Conecuh Woods will be a "state-of-the-art economic development project" generating construction jobs, permanent jobs and revenue for Conecuh County. The money could be used to pave roads and help provide emergency services and programs for children and seniors, he said.

Developers have said the project could bring more than $250 million over more than 60 years and would provide about 15 jobs.

Controversy began in Conecuh and surrounding counties even before the landfill developers made a proposal. Several municipal governments and the Monroe and Escambia county commissions passed resolutions urging the Conecuh commission to refuse the landfill.

Though the commission voted in January against the project, that vote was not binding.

Once the developers make formal application, the County Commission can vote yes or no after a public hearing. If the commission takes no action, the landfill is automatically approved after 90 days.

Commissioners said the outcome of the referendum would not be binding.

Johnny Andrews, president of the citizen's group, said he was satisfied that the majority of Conecuh people oppose the landfill.

"I was startled the commissioners would ask for this to be on the ballot," Andrews said. "Why waste taxpayers' money when it is clear to everyone most people are against it?"

Madonna said his firm was "evaluating our options with respect to the commission's decision to place the issue on the ballot."

Kinney said Conecuh Woods considered the request for a vote to be good news. "Conecuh Woods applauds the county commissioners' decision to let the voters have a voice in their future and we look forward to the opportunity to speak directly to the citizens of Conecuh County."



Fugitive Political Donor Misses Court Date
Headline News | 2007/09/06 14:31

Norman Hsu, the fugitive fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats who turned himself in to California authorities last week, failed to show up for a court appearance today, and his lawyer said Mr. Hsu’s whereabouts were unknown. Mr. Hsu, who had been free on $2 million bond, was scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Redwood City at 9 a.m. Pacific time to surrender his passport. But when the appointed time came and went with no sign of Mr. Hsu, his lawyer and prosecutors met in chambers with the judge, who then announced he was revoking Mr. Hsu’s bail and issuing a new warrant for his arrest.

"We do not know where he is at this moment," said James Brosnahan, Mr. Hsu’s lawyer. "We hope he will be court today."

Mr. Hsu’s absence seemed to be a repeat of his disappearing act in 1992, when he skipped out on a sentencing hearing related to his conviction in a fraud case, only to re-emerge years later as a major Democratic fund-raiser in New York. Since 2003, he personally contributed $600,000 to Democrats around the country and raised hundreds of thousands more, frequently hosting fund-raising parties and getting his picture taken with prominent politicians.

He was a designated "Hillraiser" for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, meaning he had bundled over $100,000 in contributions from others. Last week, the Clinton campaign said it was given to charity $23,000 Mr. Hsu had donated, and was reviewing other contributions he helped raised for any evidence of illegality.

Also last week, Mr. Hsu resigned from the board of the New School in New York, where he had served as a trustee and a member of the board of governors of the Eugene Lang College there.

Mr. Brosnahan told reporters outside the courthouse in Redwood City that he had sent an assistant to Mr. Hsu’s apartment in New York on Tuesday to retrieve Mr. Hsu’s passport, but it could not be found.

Ralph Sivilla, an assistant California attorney general, said the government had believed that the $2 million bail and Mr. Hsu’s agreement to remain in the country were sufficient to ensure that he would not flee.

"Those circumstances seemed to suggest he was not a flight risk," Mr. Sivilla said. "I don’t know at this point what our next step will be."

Asked whether Mr. Hsu could have left the country, Mr. Sivilla said "I would imagine he has the capability," although he added that he had no reason to believe that Mr. Hsu had done so.

Mr. Hsu’s latest disappearance deepens the mystery surrounding much of his life since he vanished 15 years ago. He apparently spent part of the 1990s in his native Hong Kong, where he managed a garment company, before returning to the United States and taking up residences in California and New York.

On campaign finance reports, he has listed his occupation as an executive at an assortment of companies that appear to be connected to the apparel trade, although efforts to verify his involvement with them have proven fruitless. An address he has given as his office in New York’s garment district seems to be little more than a mail drop, and people who work nearby have said they rarely see him.



McGraw Hill's Bahash Faces Purported Suit
Headline News | 2007/08/29 12:42

O'Rourke Katten & Moody said it filed a lawsuit against McGraw-Hill Cos.'s chief financial officer Robert J. Bahash on behalf of shareholders who bought the company's common stock between July 25, 2006 and Aug. 15. The law firm alleged that Bahash violated federal securities laws and that his misleading statements or omissions concerning the company's business and operations, particularly that its Standard & Poor's unit assigned "excessively high" ratings to bonds backed by subprime mortgages, artificially inflated its stock.

McGraw-Hill is a New York-based financial and education information services company. McGraw-Hill had no immediate comment because it said it wasn't aware of the suit.



Vick may face long road back to the gridiron
Headline News | 2007/08/27 11:40
By agreeing to plead guilty for his role in an illegal dogfighting outfit, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick took the first step toward putting 1915 Moonlight Road - the home of Bad Newz Kennels - behind him.

But getting back to the gridiron will be an uphill battle, even for a superstar who is one of the National Football League's top draws, analysts say. Although other NFL players have returned to the game after brushes with the law, Mr. Vick's involvement in dogfighting and allegations that he drowned underperforming dogs have repelled many Americans.

"The situation with Vick is about gambling, it's about cruelty, and it's coming at a time when there's a lot of focus on athletes' behavior," says David Carter, director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California. "I don't see how he's able to [come back] with all those things in mind."

A recent NBC poll found that 34 percent of respondents had a very negative perception of Vick, while only 1 percent had a very positive perception.

Vick's football career bloomed but never quite blossomed after he was picked first by Atlanta in the 2001 draft. His scrambling ability gave opposing defenses fits. Last year, he became the first NFL quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Although the Falcons have had up-and-down seasons under his leadership, Vick became a serious NFL fan favorite. Only wide receiver Randy Moss sold more jerseys.

But the same year he joined the NFL, Vick opened Bad Newz, indictments say. Allegations say that, on at least three occasions, Vick traveled between Atlanta, South Carolina, and Virginia to fight the dogs for money, with some stakes rising to over $10,000 per fight.

A new federal law that makes it a felony to take fighting dogs across state lines carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Vick's guilty plea most likely would reduce his jail time. Two of his codefendants in their plea agreements received sentences of 12 to 18 months. Theoretically, that length of sentence would allow Vick to return to the NFL for the 2009 season.

But Vick's admission of guilt also adds pressure to already stressed relationships with Falcons owner Arthur Blank, NFL commissioner and ?ber-disciplinarian Roger Goodell, and football fans - all of whom have previously heard Vick plead his innocence.

"Michael Vick is going to have to make a significant act of contrition and embrace a new way of life, and show that he's worthy of redemption to both the NFL and the fans," says Rich Hanley, a pop-culture expert at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.
To be sure, several other NFL players have come back from felony cases, to various levels of success. In return for testimony against the prime suspects, authorities allowed Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge for obstruction of justice in a trial resulting from a double-slaying at an Atlanta Super Bowl party in January 2000. Mr. Lewis missed the Pro Bowl that year, but returned to not just rebuild his name, but bolster his profile and play in subsequent seasons.
Players like Bam Morris, Art Schlicter, Leonard Little, and Tamarick Vanover have all returned to play after facing serious criminal charges. Mr. Vanover got a second chance with the Chargers in 2002 even after admitting to undercover FBI agents that he set up a $40,000 drug deal.

"My cynical self says that you can do just about anything in the NFL as long as you perform on the field," says Stephen Mosher, a sports management expert at Ithaca College in New York.

In allowing such second chances, sports experts say, both the league and the fans implicitly acknowledge that players are sometimes recruited from the fringes of society and often from poor, rural areas in the South where activities such as dogfighting, while not legal, may be somewhat acceptable.

"You're not [always] going to get choirboys playing this game, it's that simple," says Mr. Mosher. "At the same time, Mike Vick touched the third rail: You don't mess with people's pets."

The NFL is conducting its own investigation. "We totally condemn the conduct outlined in the charges, which is inconsistent with what Michael Vick previously told both our office and the Falcons,"the league said in a statement. The Vick case is the biggest test yet of Commissioner Goodell's push to clean up the league.

The pigskin wunderkind from Newport News, Va., may have to go beyond contrition to win back his lost public - not to mention as much as $100 million in lost compensation and endorsements.

"I don't know of anything quite like this in sports history, so it's hard to say how the public will eventually react," says Mr. Hanley. "Coming back [for Vick] will be a process, not an event."

It's dubious that Vick will return to the Atlanta Falcons. Any general manager who considers Vick in the future will have to weigh his explosive abilities against a potential PR nightmare. And what city is looking for a quarterback? Jacksonville and Tampa might need someone in 2009, but could they find a role for a left-handed tosser with limited playoff experience, even if he came as a bargain?

"Mike Vick doesn't quite fit into that thuggish perception that we have of NFL players," says Alan Caruba, a public relations consultant in South Orange, N.J. "But will this episode sober him sufficiently to understand who he is and his place in this world? That's anybody's guess."


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