Here is an interesting collection of stories I ran across tonight while catching up on my feeds. Rather than pontificate as I have been on the Amero case, I’ll leave it to you, my readers to decide if you think the outcome and/or charge is just:
Guns for Xanax?
I posted awhile back about my family doctor being charged with Medicare fraud for what appears to be identity theft. In the smear article the local paper wrote about his case, they lumped him with the good Thousand Oaks doctor William Coburn, MD (registration required), who was accused of trading drugs for guns. He pleaded no contest to 2 misdemeanor counts of unlawfully transferring a firearm and will give up his medical license. The maximum sentence is 2 years in jail.
The informant, who is not named in the documents, claims to have been typically prescribed 100 Vicodin and 100 Xanax pills by Coburn for pain. The informant said he had been addicted to painkillers since 1996 after a knee injury.
For each visit, the man would reportedly pay a $75 consultation fee, then give $200 to Coburn in his office. If the informant didn’t have money, he gave the doctor items ranging from tools to guns to get prescription medications, he told detectives.
[snip]
The informant claimed to have traded a .357-caliber Magnum, two rifles, two television sets and tools engraved with his initials for drugs, either from the office or in prescriptions.
2 years for playing fast and loose with prescription medications? You make the call.
Miami Police Don’t Care Much for Paparrazzi, or This Guy Should Write Josh Wolf
Via Thomas Hawk, the story of a photojournalist who dared to take pictures of a police action on a public street.
I noticed five cops surrounding a man, threatening him with arrest. They were standing in a gravel area between the road and the sidewalk and I was standing on the gravel as well, but I was about 20 yards from them. The gravel area is part of the expansion construction that has been ongoing on the Blvd. One day, it will be open to all cars, but now, it is off-limit to cars.One of the cops told me to keep walking because this was a “private matter”.
I said that I will not keep walking because this is a “public street”.
Within seconds, the five officer left the first man alone and came after me. One cop escorted me across the road. As I stood on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, the cops began surrounding me, which was when I shot several more shots.That was when they slammed me against the pavement even though I offered no resistance, causing a deep abrasion on my right knee. One officer grabbed me by the back of the head and repeatedly bashed my forehead against the sidewalk, causing abrasions and swelling to the right side of my forehead.
Another officer grabbed my right hand and bent it backwards in a 90 degree angle, causing me to scream out in pain and continuing to do so even after the handcuffs were placed on me. As I verbally protested, one officer threatened me with a taser gun if I did not stop talking.
The officers charged me with five counts of disobeying a police, one count of obstructing justice, one count of obstructing traffic, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of resisting arrest without violence.
Deal or no deal? You make the call, and you can Digg it, too.
Porn Buyer, Beware, or Free Speech Can Be Costly
Via Ed Brayton, this report of an ACLU official arrested for possessing child pornography, which he provided his email address and a credit card in exchange for the right to download the video. And it wasn’t a harmless video either…it was a video depicting violent and despicable acts against children.
Note: Sticks was tried and convicted by me when I discovered email confirms and debit card receipts for the porn I cleaned off his computer. It’s pretty weighty evidence, but you make the call.
Speech Ain’t Free in Mississauga
Vicki Davis posted a link to this report of the censure of a sixth grader for daring to write an essay about being bored because it showed disrespect to a teacher. He was the first-place winner of the previous years’ speech contest, but this year was told he could submit, but not deliver, his essay, because it was ‘disrespectful’.
Just or Unjust?
If You Text Them, They Will Come
MSNBC has this bizarre article about a middle school teacher trying to score some pot. Evidently she sent a few text messages to her dealer, only she had the wrong number, causing the messages to land on a Kentucky state trooper’s cell phone in the middle of a family birthday party.
Police spokesman Barry Meadows has a message for the hapless woman: “Program your dealers into your phone.” HarDeeHarHar.
Greenfield, a teacher at Murray Middle School, was charged with conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a school, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, Meadows said.She was suspended with pay pending results of aninvestigation, the Murray Independent School District said in a statement posted Friday on the district’s Web site. A message seeking comment left at a listing for an Ann Greenfield in Murray, Ky. was not returned.
I’m not even sure what to think about this. How unlucky can you be to land a wrong number text message on a state trooper’s cell phone? Here’s my question: If the text messages were sent at night and received during a party, why is she being charged with the 1000 feet charge? Unless of course, the meeting spot was the school. Say it isn’t so….
Should she have the book thrown at her? You tell me.
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