10.07.2022

It's Friday -- Let's Get Out of Here

at 2:30 PM

Random Friday Morning Thoughts




I presume the juror was replaced by an alternate. His appeal mentioned nothing about a sleeping juror.

  • President Biden pardons all those with federal marijuana possession convictions, urges states to do the same and consider abolishing the criminalization of weed. This is a watershed moment. 



  • Less that 24 hours after CNN revealed that a trooper who was at the Uvalde shooting had been hired as a police officer by the Uvalde School District Police Department, she was fired. 



  • Two are dead and six were injured after a stabbing spree in front of The Wynn on the Vegas strip. It sounds like it was attack of street "showgirls."   A guy was arrested in front of the Venetian. 

  • These headlines are everywhere this morning. Everyone needs to calm down a bit. The exact quote was. “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”   He didn't say "until now"  or "this current prospect". Even after reading the comment in  in context, I don't see why everyone is all bent out of shape. (Even the AP buries this sentence: "It was not immediately clear whether Biden was referring to any new assessment of Russian intentions.")


  • Elon Musk wants the litigation by Twitter against him to be indefinitely suspended so he could buy Twitter as he "promises."  Twitter wanted the October trial date to start on time to force the sale before then. For some reason, the judge moved the trial to November and gave a deadline of October 28th to get the deal done. Twitter's pleadings yesterday showed they aren't screwing around:

  • Cops arresting cops. I would think this was part of a sting operation, but none of the stories actually say that. 

  • The trial of Oath Keepers' leader Stewart Rhodes, for his part in the Trump Insurrection, continues. Remember that the Secret Service has destroyed all text messages about that day? And remember Vice President Pence refusing to get in a car driven by the Secret Service to evacuate the capitol? Well yesterday there was testimony that Rhodes has may have had a contact within the Secret Service. Keep an eye on this. 

  • The name has gone up at the construction site in Bridgeport. 

  • This is a funny photo. The happy guy talking to the president has "Cracker" on his shirt, Biden has his arm around the lady, and DeSantis looks dejected in the foreground.

  • There was another concussion in the NFL last night. The frightening video is here.

  • We are watching a modern day Babe Ruth and no one seems to understand that. Shohei Ohtani finished in the Top 5 this season in home runs hit and strikes out as a pitcher. Below are those who have done that. He ended with a batting average or .275 and an ERA of 2.33.  We've never seen anything like this. 

  • Texas is heavily favored to beat OU, but I wouldn't start Quinn Ewers. It would be only his third start, he's only played five quarters so far, and he's coming off an injury. Hey, he may end up being great, but people sure are putting a lot of stock into one quarter against Alabama. If Texas were to lose this game, the orange bloods would go berserk. 
  • Time which has passed since the Wise County Sheriff's Office, despite having a full male DNA profile, has failed to solve the murder of Lauren Whitener in her home at Lake Bridgeport: 3 years, 94 days.
  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:31 AM

10.06.2022

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts




The great Lari Barager, then of Fox 4 News, dropped by my office 10 years ago this week. It had to do with the fire being intentionally set in a courthouse bathroom. She always kept an eye on Wise County for crazy stories. 
  • CNN has obtained a Uvalde video showing the first DPS trooper who arrived at the school.  She's one of the handful of troopers who are now under investigation by the agency. But get this: She resigned from DPS over the summer but now works for -- oh, my -- the Uvalde ISD Police Department.

    • The last sentence of the article is a shocker:

  • Senate candidate Hershel Walker told Fox and Friends yesterday morning that he didn't even know who the woman was that was making the claim he paid for her abortion (despite her having a cancelled check and a get-well card from him). Well, last night the same lady gave permission to reveal she is also the mother of one of Walker's children. 


  • World news this morning: When we say we want the rest of the world to be "more like America", we don't mean this part. 

  • That's quite the opening sentence.

     

  • Texas executed a man last night over objections from the D.A.'s office. Background:

    • But this line, from another story, is a little haunting. Out. Of. Habit.  

  • "The man accused of intentionally driving his SUV through a crowd of Christmas parade attendees in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last year, killing six people and wounding dozens more, is set to represent himself at his homicide trial Thursday amid concerns over his mental health." This does not appear to be going well.

  • Remember Gov. Abbott's stunt to have you voluntarily donate money to Build The Wall? Well, it has raised $54 million. How much of that came from one guy? $53.1 million.

  • Did the crazy Texas DA who filed obscenity charges against Netflix for the show Cuties dismiss that case? That's what was buried in this legal nerdy article yesterday about a different case being argued before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

  • What is that exactly? A Nazi? 

  • Business news this morning: It's on its last legs. And I was just reminded of their Christmas commercial from a couple of years back which seems timely.


  • Final American League standings (the first time I've looked at them in a while). Is this bad?:

  • The metroplex media has yet to pick up that Runaway Bay is dumping raw sewage into Lake Bridgeport. Lari Barager would be up here by now. 


at 8:30 AM

10.05.2022

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts




A 17 year old from Aledo called 911 on October 4, 2012, saying, “Uh, I just killed my mom and my sister . . . . I felt like they were just suffocating me, in a way . . . .Obviously, you know, I’m pretty, I guess, evil.” He would ultimately receive a 45 year sentence.

  • The Messenger has an incredible story today, but the headline needs to be "City of Runaway Bay Is Dumping Raw Sewage Into Lake Bridgeport!"   And the sub-headline needs to be their seemingly callousness and indifference about it. It's basically, "Someone needs to give us millions of dollars to fix this problem or it's gonna happen again -- too bad."  This should be a big story in the metroplex which ends up with that water. And how's the EPA not coming down on them? Good lord: 


  • What was this around New Fairview yesterday afternoon? 

  • Hey, Wise County Sheriff's Office: Your online PDF of the jail roster is not updating. 
  • Elon Musk again agrees to buy Twitter after discovering that signing a formal agreement actually means something. 

  • The guy who caught Aaron Judge's homerun ball last night seems a little jerky. I could be wrong. We've already learned that he's a VP at Fisher Investments and married to Bri Amaranthus who was on the 22nd season of The Bachelor in 2018.

  • Trial out of Denton. Seems like a prosecutor screw-up. Click to enlarge.

  • Another suicide. Something weird is going on.

  • People are camped outside of the school administration building in Uvalde.

  • Obviously, a very important warning for parents. Let the word go forth.

  • And another.

  • Very, very nerdy legal stuff for criminal practitioners only: You ever have a problem where you want your client's property returned after his arrest when it wasn't seized by a search warrant? Can you get the magistrate who set the bond to do it? We've got an answer from at least one court yesterday: No.  A magistrate's duty at the beginning stages of a criminal case are limited to the right to an "examining trial." And an examining trial, which is to determine if probable cause exists before there is an indictment, gives the magistrate no right to return property.
    • The case is out of Houston which has the unusual practice of filing a felony "complaint" with the district court immediately after the arrest which will ultimately get the indictment. That's weird to me. In any event, it was a district judge who ruled the property should be returned but, the appellate court said, since there was yet to be an indictment the judge was only serving the role of a magistrate at that point so his authority was limited to that of an examining trial court. 
    • Side note: I kind of like that "complaint" practice. At least in Harris County, if you can get an examining trial it would be in front of the district judge who will ultimately have the case. Also, that procedure of filing a "complaint" with that district court makes it clear that any bond modifications (which are a bit of the wild west anyway) are handled by that judge as well.
    • Side note for the common man: Examining trials are rare in most counties. Once their is an indictment, that right goes away.  So a "Motion for an Examining Trial" is basically a "Motion to Guarantee Indictment In The Next Few Days." 
    • One more: I think Dallas County may have that complaint-filed-with-district-court practice. I'll see in the news them having mini pre-indictment trials before a judge from time to time.  
  • Messenger - Above the Fold

at 8:29 AM
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)