Day: January 15, 2014

Echos from the old days on finance: The Depth Charge

And it carries pretty much the standard definition in the world of financial message board communications as it does in the Navy. Wanna know a bit more about your fellow “anonymous” message boarders. Get a fix via sonar and then:

After the explosion information always bubbles up and that was certainly the case with the saga of Judge Susie Morgan’s former law clerk turned accused pedophile Thomas “Haller” Jackson.  I could not have been more personally delighted with the results of my last depth charge thus we begin with David Lat over at Above the Law, who was kind enough to link Slabbed’s coverage of the Jackson arrest.  Here is Lat’s last update to his post on same:

In response to a number of the comments, I would observe that (1) the allegations describe truly reprehensible and disgusting conduct (even though there was no actual boy involved); (2) if the allegations are true, then Haller Jackson should be punished to the full extent of the law; and (3) the sexual abuse of children is a deadly serious problem. I would have thought that (1) this all went without saying and (2) an audience composed mainly of lawyers and law students would understand the presumption of innocence. But based on some of the comments, it seems that I was wrong. Hence this update.

I think the lawyers and nonlawyers all understood Mr. Lat’s post but it would be a reader comment such as this one that prompted the post update:

“At least he was carrying condoms. You don’t need a Ph.D. in epidemiology to know the wisdom of using protection in random sexual encounters. . . . It sounds like Haller Jackson is in a relatively good position, under the circumstances. . . . The younger Haller Jackson and I have been friendly for a number of years — we know each other through his former boss, Chief Judge Kozinski (who has had his own racy misadventures online) — and I was shocked by these allegations. Nothing I know of Haller Jackson would lead me to believe he could engage in such conduct — and I suspect that the four federal judges for whom he clerked feel the same way. He did, after all, have to pass background checks in order to obtain his multiple clerkships.” Jesus Fucking Christ, Lat. Innocent until proven unpreftigious is not even a joke anymore. He is in a “good position” after trying to fuck a ten year old. He actively solicited sex with a ten year old, but since the ten year old did not exist and he is a Koz alum, it’s all good? I thought the FREE KEVIN RING was bad, but by comparison, that article might as well be In Cold Blood. This might be my tipping point with your website. It was fun while it lasted.

Continue reading “Echos from the old days on finance: The Depth Charge”

OP Criminal District Clerk’s race drilldown: Old line political hack v newcomer

Over the past several weeks I’ve taken an interest in the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court election which pits old line political hack Arthur Morrell against Robbie Keen, an Alabama transplant that ran the National Institute of Justice’s Orleans Parish Post-Conviction DNA Testing and Evidence Project which was tasked of organizing the disaster otherwise known as the Criminal Clerk’s evidence storage and tracking system. If you’ve heard of the Booker Diggins saga (Nowdy’s archival post on The State of Louisiana v Diggins can be found here) then you know Ms. Keen despite the fact she was behind the scenes. Let’s start with Claire Galofaro’s story for the Advocate from September 2013:

This history of the Diggins case reads like a legal thriller: When he returned to the courthouse last spring, after decades in prison, he was at first greeted as the latest example of prosecutorial misdeeds under former District Attorney Harry Connick.

Indeed it does as a man found guilty of rape and robbery almost walked free:

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro agreed to scrap Diggins’ conviction and let him plead guilty to a lesser crime that would have set him free on credit for time served.

Diggins believed he would leave prison that day.

Marullo scoffed at the deal and refused to accept it.

He ordered that Diggins stand trial again.

Just weeks later, an 11th-hour search requested by Cannizzaro turned up the rape kit itself, thought to have been lost for 20 years, on a shelf in a back corner of the courthouse attic. Prosecutors tested the DNA and found that, indeed, it belonged to Booker Diggins.

The Louisiana State Police’s crime lab found that one in 38,000 people might have left that DNA. The Innocence Project had the DNA tested, too, by a California analyst, whose results were even more damning.

That testing indicated Diggins was the only person on Earth who could have left that sample.

Who was responsible for finding that old rape kit? Robbie Keen as John Simerman explained the multi year saga to find it in today’s Advocate: Continue reading “OP Criminal District Clerk’s race drilldown: Old line political hack v newcomer”

Guest Post | Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the January 15, 2014 Parish Council Meeting

Supporters of Good Government:

The Jefferson Parish Council will meet this Wednesday, January 15th at 10 a.m. on the East Bank in the Yenni Building. As we have been doing for over three years, Citizens for Good Government will again present summary information from our Campaign Contribution Table shown below. Total campaign contributions of $602,507 were made during the past four years to our councilmen by contractors and subcontractors on whom the councilmembers are scheduled to vote at the January 15th council meeting.

TOTAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS 011514 JP COUNCIL TABLE
Click to obtain pdf

Because there is a resolution on the agenda to select the winner of the lease for Jefferson Parish’s publicly-owned hospitals, East Jefferson General Hospital and West Jefferson Medical Center, Citizens for Good Government will speak on this issue. Continue reading “Guest Post | Jefferson Parish Citizens for Good Government: Campaign Contribution Report for the January 15, 2014 Parish Council Meeting”