Birdsong presents you more absolutely true, but weird, criminal law stories:
Saratoga Springs, NY: Calvin Morett, a 19 year old high school student was cited for disorderly conduct. His conduct? He showed up at his high school graduation dressed as a 6 foot penis. Officials report that Morett went to court where he stood erect, manned up and pleaded guilty to the charge. For his punishment he was ordered to write a letter of apology to his school.
Not a very stiff punishment we would say!
Pittsburgh, PA: Police report that Thomas Jones siphoned off more than $40,000 gasoline from his ex-boss – by swiping a company gas card and using it to buy 11,000 gallons of gas for himself and others. Jones was arrested in mid July after his former boss at BW Wholesale Florist, Mike Ulrich, caught him in the act. Ulrich stated that after he reported Jones’s $43,695.16 in fraudulent fill ups, he spotted Jones gassing up again – and delivered him to the police.
Jones must have driven one heckuva big SUV!
Denton, TX: One weird family reunion.
Stephanie Ramirez was working in a pizza parlor in Denton, when a robber wearing a wig and sunglasses barged in and demanded cash. As Rameriz took money from the register a coworker tackled the robber knocking off his disguise – and revealing that the robber was Rameriz’s father. Police say they do not think that Rameriz herself was in on the robbery.
…Hhhmmmmmm… but we are still mighty suspicious about it.
Rhode Island: Pictures from social networking web sites are cropping up in court.
Online photos tripped up Joshua Lipton, a 20 year old college junior., after he was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman. Two weeks after his arrest, he attended a Halloween party dresses as a prisoner. The photos were later posted on Facebook. Prosecutor Jay Sullivan used the photos to paint Lipton as an unrepentant partier living it up while his victim suffered in the hospital. The judge found the photos depraved and sentenced Lipton to two years in prison.
Ouch!
Indiana: Cop gets off one the wrong foot. Tim Pochron had been on the job for only 29 minutes during his first day on the police force when he wrecked his police car. In his defense, the other driver who crashed into him tested positive for drugs was arrested.
Maybe Pochron needs to find a less dangerous line of work.
These remind me of a barrister friend who was defending the youngest member of a family well known to the local police.
In court the young man had committed the secondary crime of liking the sound of his own voice whilst being cross-examined – much to the detriment of his defence.
When the court was recessed the barrister found his client being manhandled and berated by the client’s grandfather for not keeping his mouth shut.
The only way the barrister could calm the grandfather down was by pointing out that it was the lad’s first court case and he was sure he’d get better with practice…