Legal Briefing

The government may have not had as much evidence as it would have liked, but it had enough to convince a jury to convict Jose Padilla of material support of terrorism.

When I listed the evidence against him the other day, I forgot to mention that there are also tapes of intercepted phone calls where Padilla was supposed to have been talking in code:

Central to the investigation were some 300,000 FBI wiretap intercepts collected from 1993 to 2001, mainly involving Padilla's co-defendants Hassoun and Jayyousi and others. Most of the conversations were in Arabic and purportedly used code such as "tourism" and "football" for violent jihad or "zucchini" and "eggplant" instead of military weapons or ammunition.

Padilla's mother says there was no evidence her son was talking in code, but I imagine that a jury that heard these phone calls would be able to ascertain whether Padilla and his co-defendants were planning a picnic or violent jihad.

The only thing that gives me pause is that the bulk of the calls apparently involved Padilla's co-defendants rather than himself.

Wait for the appeal process for more on this.

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jack McClellan the self-described pedophile barred from being within 30 feet of children was caught twice at UCLA yesterday.

Big surprise.

With his picture plastered across the Internet, it was not going to be long until he violated his court order. The amazing thing (or maybe not so amazing if the theory is this whole debacle is just a cry for help) is that McClellan dared to go near an infant care center, which is where he was caught.

He had a camera on him, triggering concerns that he was there to take pictures of kids, like he used to post on his web site before it was shut down.

McClellan said he went to UCLA to avoid going near kids, which might have been believable for a homeless guy with nowhere to go if he didn't just happen to be near an infant care center with a camera.

Still, with no criminal record, this whole restraining order is still pretty strong... the guy needs an attorney really badly.

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Seems like it was only yesterday that Jose Padilla was locked up as an enemy combatant. His case passed through the courts with surprisingly little media scrutiny. I'm sure this pleased government prosecutors and the White House, considering that the case against Padilla is fairly weak, considering what the government originally claimed he did.

He was never charged with plotting to explode a dirty bomb, the alleged crime that landed him with some of the most highly-valued terrorist targets in the world in Guantanamo (along with some of the world's most unfortunate Muslims).

Instead he was charged with materially supporting terrorism, the main evidence of which was an "application" to join Al-Qaeda that he allegedly filled out. The problem is, his fingerprints are only on the front and bottom pages, "in a manner consistent with someone who just handled the pages," in the words of his defense lawyers, who allege he was forced to handle the documents while in U.S. custody.

Could it be that this guy actually might have a chance of acquittal?

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm sure they are grumbling over at the D.A's office after Frank Beltran managed to get his trial delayed again, though his new lawyer, Art Lindars told me that the trial would be delayed with the understanding that this was the absolute last time.

Though some of his past associates told me that he was sort of nuts, when I spoke with Beltran he seemed very calm and logical about trying his case on his own. He said he wanted a lawyer who would be willing to take his case to trial, which Lindars said he is willing to do.

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the olden days, angry mobs just ran undesirables out of town. That or they hung them from the highest tree.

Since that option is no longer on the table, agitated Southern California parents obtained a restraining order against self-described pedophile Jack McClellan that would bar him from being within 30 feet of children. I doubt it will be read literally, because if so, McClellan would have to live somewhere deep in the woods, but even so this is a pretty amazing ruling for someone who has no criminal record.

After tracking him down at LAX and serving him with a restraining order, authorities allowed McClellan to get on a plane bound for Chicago, where he was slated to attend yet another TV show taping. Wonder if they had to re-seat him to get him 30 feet away from children on the plane? Anything to get him out of the state I guess.

Update: With nearly 700 votes cast, our online polls are showing that 62 percent of voting online readers say that a self-described pedophile should not have the same constitutional rights as anyone else.

The question may be skewed, however.... it depends whether the word "pedophile" is taken to mean someone who has actually sexually molested a child, or just someone who confesses to wanting to, like McClellan.

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The subject of a front page article in our paper today. The defendant, Frank Beltran, insists that he is innocent and wants a trial.... it appears his two former lawyers disagreed with the decision to go to trial.

So at what point do you just go ahead and do what your client wants? Is it better to look out for his well-being by trying to force him down the path you think will work out best, or to carry out the case the way the client wants?

Probably most lawyers when confronted by heaps of eyewitness testimony linking their client to an attempted murder of his wife and a police officer, would do what Beltran's said his lawyers did, which was to try to push their client in to taking a plea deal.

I still can't imagine how Beltran faces his wife in court, who is still disabled from bullets she claims he fired into her body. After hearing her testimony at his preliminary hearing, Beltran apparently broke into tears...he will have to work hard to handle himself this time around.

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While looking up an article on a recently sentenced spammer I stumbled across an interesting (though year old) article on seemingly-charitable computer nerds who break into "secure" databases and download information just to show organizations that they have security problems.

Unfortunately these guys the end up in court.

Of course, the article is written from a defense lawyer's point of view... wonder what the prosecutors in these cases would say about them?

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Seems like authorities may have been a little hasty in pushing two Diamond Bar pot growing cases through the system. As written here in today's paper, the second case has ended in a plea deal that involves no jail time, a week after the first case ended in "not guilty" verdicts.

The similarities in the case are uncanny: none of the suspects owned the grow houses they were accused of running, neither was seen at the house by witnesses or police surveillance except on the day they were arrested, and all of them were Chinese nationals. Three of them claimed to be hired contractors doing work at the house.

At least in this week's case there was no mention of disappearing evidence.

Seems like maybe the police were too eager to go for the small fish, instead of using those fish to go after the big ones. However, county police say the investigations are still open in both cases, so we may not have heard the last of these cases.

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My name is Dan Abendschein and I can often be found hanging around the Pomona Superior Court or back in the newsroom bothering court clerks for the outcomes on San Gabriel Valley cases.

I want to use this blog to give everyone interested in the courts a chance to read, comment, and share ideas. We focus a lot of energy in the paper on updating cases, and talking about crime, that s ometimes other legal issues don't get aired. So let's keep the lines of communication open, and I will do my best to post on all the relevant issues I can think of.

Posted by Dan Abendschein at 05:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)