Sunday, May 13, 2012

Lawyer enters not guilty plea for shooting suspect

A California man accused of committing the nation's deadliest school shooting rampage since the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech pleaded not guilty Monday to murder charges.

One L. Goh, 43, entered his plea through his lawyer, Deputy Public Defender David Klaus in Alameda County Superior Court.

Goh is charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the April 2 attack at Oikos University in Oakland.

Klaus declined to comment after the hearing.

Goh also faces the special circumstance of committing multiple murders that makes him eligible for the death penalty.

Authorities said Goh planned the shootings and opened fire at the small Christian college founded to cater to Korean immigrants after becoming angry over a tuition dispute with school officials.

Those killed were students Doris Chibuko, 40; Judith Seymour, 53; Grace EunHea Kim, 23; Lydia Sim, 21; Bhutia Tshering, 38; Sonam Choedon, 33; and secretary Katleen Ping, 24.

Choedon's brother, Wangchen Nyima, attended Monday's hearing and said he wanted to see Goh in person.

"I just want to know why this happened," Nyima said. "He seems like he has his own problems. He seems like he's a psycho."

Shackled and wearing a red jumpsuit, Goh appeared somewhat calm during his brief court hearing and was noticeably thinner than he was during his previous court appearance.

A once heavyset man, Goh lost about 20 pounds in jail after he went on a self-imposed hunger strike, said sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson. Goh inexplicably began eating again on Saturday, Nelson said.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Wary of activist court, Obama defends health law

President Barack Obama on Monday issued a rare, direct challenge to the Supreme Court to uphold his historic health care overhaul, weighing in with a vigorous political appeal for judicial restraint. He warned that overturning the law would hurt millions of Americans and amount to overreach by the "unelected" court.

Obama predicted that a majority of justices would uphold the law when the ruling is announced in June. But the president, himself a former law professor, seemed intent on swaying uncertain views in the meantime, both in the court of public opinion and in the minds of the justices about not overstepping the high court's bounds.

"Ultimately, I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress," Obama said at a Rose Garden news conference.

The majority he referenced was not quite that strong; Congress approved the law two years ago in hard-fought party-line votes after a divisive national debate. Republican presidential contenders say they will make sure it is repealed if the Supreme Court doesn't throw it out first.

For a president to weigh in so forcefully about a case currently under deliberation by the Supreme Court is unusual, and it speaks to the stakes at hand.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Fugitive sibling to appear in Colo. court

One of the three siblings accused in a multi-state crime spree is scheduled to enter a plea deal in court on Thursday.

Prosecutors and Lee Grace Dougherty, 29, are scheduled to present a plea deal to Judge Claude Appel during a hearing, spokesman Rob McCallum said.

Prosecutors and her attorney aren't commenting, citing a judge imposed gag order. Prosecutors last week dropped attempted-murder charges against her and instead charged her with eight felony first-degree assault and menacing charges. Each charge corresponds to an officer involved in a high-speed chase Aug. 10 in southern Colorado.

Dougherty and her two brothers — Ryan Dougherty, 21, and Dylan Stanley-Dougherty, 26 — are accused of shooting at a police officer in Florida, as well as robbing a Georgia bank before being captured in southern Colorado on Aug. 10.

There's no word yet on whether the brothers have also reached plea deals. Colorado, federal and Florida prosecutors have been discussing possible plea deals involving them.

Attorneys for the siblings have questioned whether prosecutors' evidence could prove that the siblings were trying to harm or kill officers, pointing to an apparent lack of bullet holes on police cruisers involved in the chase.

Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP Announces Class Action

Notice is hereby given that Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP has filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of all purchasers of the American Depositary Shares of China Medical Technologies, Inc. between November 26, 2007 and December 12, 2011, inclusive seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

A copy of the Complaint is available from the court or from Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP. Please contact us by phone to discuss this action or to obtain a copy of the Complaint at (310) 201-9150 or Toll Free at (888) 773-9224, by email at shareholders@glancylaw.com, or visit our website at http://www.glancylaw.com.

China Medical develops, manufactures and markets immunodiagnostic and molecular diagnostic products. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations and prospects, including: (1) that the Company’s acquisition of Beijing Bio-Ekon Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (“BBE”) was from a third-party seller connected to China Medical’s CEO; (2) that the Company substantially overpaid to acquire BBE; (3) that China Medical’s acquisition of BBE involved the use of fraudulent shell companies; (4) that the Company was suffering substantial operating losses prior to the acquisition; (5) that a majority of the Company’s accounts receivable were in excess of 120 days; (6) that, as a result, China Medical’s financial results were overstated; (7) that the Company lacked adequate internal and financial controls; and (8), as a result of the foregoing, that the Company's statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of class members and is represented by Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP, a law firm with significant experience in prosecuting class actions and substantial expertise in actions involving corporate fraud.

http://www.glancylaw.com

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Court hearing planned for Utah's immigration law

Eight months after Utah's immigration enforcement law was put on hold by a federal judge, attorneys on both sides will have an opportunity on Friday to argue the constitutionality of the measure.

The law created by House Bill 497 would have allowed police to check the citizenship of anybody they arrest. It was initially blocked last May by U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups, 14 hours after it went into effect. At the time, Waddoups pointed at similarities to a contentious Arizona law that is bound for the U.S. Supreme Court and said there was sufficient evidence that at least some parts of the Utah law would be found unconstitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union and National Immigration Law Center sued a week before the law went into effect to stop the implementation of House Bill 497, saying it could lead to racial profiling. The U.S. Justice Department joined the lawsuit in November, claiming the measure usurped federal authority.

Lawyers for the Utah attorney general's office have maintained the law is constitutional because it doesn't allow police to check the citizenship of everyone they encounter. They argue lawmakers worked to avoid the constitutional pitfalls of the Arizona law and passed a significantly different bill.

NY appeals court orders NJ programmer's acquittal

A federal appeals court on Friday reversed the conviction of a former Goldman Sachs programmer on charges he stole computer code, ordering an acquittal in a case that tested the boundaries of what can be considered a crime as companies seek to protect their intellectual property from competitors.

The unusually speedy mandate from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan will result in freedom for Sergey Aleynikov, of North Caldwell, N.J. He has been in prison since he was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison. He was convicted in December 2010 of stealing trade secrets and transporting stolen property in interstate and foreign commerce.

A three-judge appeals panel heard arguments on Thursday, but the judges gave no indication that they would reverse the lower court hours later with a terse, one-paragraph order. The 2nd Circuit said it would issue a written ruling "in due course" to explain its decision.

Aleynikov's attorney, Kevin Marino, said he spoke with his client Friday. He said Aleynikov reacted by concluding: "There is justice in the world."

"I could not be happier," Marino said. "It's justice because Sergey Aleynikov did not commit either of the crimes with which he was charged. The government's attempt to stretch this criminal federal statute beyond all recognition resulted in a grave injustice that put Sergey Aleynikov in prison for a year."

In arguments before the 2nd Circuit on Thursday, Marino called it "ridiculous" and "preposterous" that his client was facing eight years in prison because he was found to have information that was not a product that Goldman Sachs sold in interstate and foreign commerce. A prosecutor had asked the court to uphold the conviction, saying protection of trade secrets was the only way companies could retain their technological advantages.

Israel top court takes Palestinian detainee appeal

Israel's Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing this week on the appeal of a Palestinian prisoner waging an unprecedented hunger strike that has stretched for more than two months, court officials and his lawyers said Monday.

Khader Adnan, a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group, is demanding he be released immediately. He has not been charged with a crime and does not know what he is suspected of doing.

The case of the 33-year-old Adnan has attracted widespread attention among Palestinians, with large crowds holding regular protests in his support.

The life-threatening gamble has also drawn broader attention toward Israel's policy of "administrative detention," under which Palestinians can be held without charge for months, and even years, at a time.

Both the European Union and the United Nations have said they are following the case closely and urged Israel to give Adnan an open trial.

Adnan was arrested on Dec. 17 and later sentenced to four months of administrative detention. He launched the strike a day after his arrest, protesting his administrative detention and claiming he was beaten and humiliated in captivity.