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Leagle Beagle November 2019

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

SANDY HOOK—A HOAX?

James Fetzer co-authored a book (“Nobody Died at Sandy Hook”) in which he wrote that the shootings of 26 kids & teachers at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut on Dec 14, 2012, never happened but was staged by the federal government . He claimed that Leonard Pozner, whose 6 year old son Noah was killed, had faked the death certificate of the boy. Mr Pozner sued for defamation; a Wisconsin jury recently awarded him $450,000. Amen.

WHAT’S A LITTLE CHOKEHOLD?

When Galesburg police stopped a car for failure to use a turn signal, the officer noticed a bulge in the driver’s cheek and a piece of plastic. When the driver said that he didn’t have anything in his mouth, the officer grabbed him under his jaw to keep him from swallowing, which turned out to be crack cocaine. Based on a 2016 law enacted in Illinois after the death of Eric Garner in New York, the Appellate Court held that such force is expressly prohibited & therefore the police actions were “unpermitted force” & thus violated his 4th Amendment rights.

A BULLET LIST OF RECENT CASES OF NOTE

  • DNA–PRIVATE?? Maybe no more! A Florida judge issued a search warrant allowing police to enter GED match’s database of 1 million users. If left to stand, it could mean that no genetic information is safe!
  • SEX & THE LAWYER A female lawyer in Georgia had a romantic fling with a client during a child custody matter, then, when he left her, she had him followed by a PI, and finally bad-mouthed the wife to her employer. She’s been disbarred!
  • OBESITY & the ADA A CTA bus driver who went between 350 and 566 pounds was fired as it was “unsafe” for him to drive; he sued claiming that was a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act. But the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said that it is only a disability if the result of psychological conditions. To find that obesity (which is found to be 39.8% of the American population) is an automatic disability would be a “nonrealistic result”.
  • ELEPHANT RIGHTS Arguing in New York that Happy, a 47-year-old elephant who has been in a 1 acre pen at the Bronx Zoo virtually all her life, lawyers have asked again that their trunked-client be considered a “person”. Happy’s dilemma, after being captured in Thailand as a calf with Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Bashful, & Doc, was compared in court to the plight of slaves not being considered “fully human”. Stay tuned.

THEY SAID IT

“We all make mistakes, but the thing is to learn from them. And make different mistakes.” Debbie Harry, singer

“Don’t make the mistake of treating your dogs like humans, or they’ll treat you like dogs.” Martha Scott, actress

“There’s one way to find out if a man is honest. Ask him. If he says “yes”, you know he’s a crook”. Groucho Marx

“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open pit and die.” Mel Brooks