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Attorney General Urges Change in Sentencing Laws
At a conference at the American Bar Association in San Francisco, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder plans for the federal government to scale back stiff sentences for some drug crimes and divert low-level offenders to drug treatment and community service programs. “We cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation,” he said.
A recent editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times said that the change in sentencing laws is a welcome reform for an overused and overburdened federal prison system. For decades, mandatory minimum sentencing, although politically popular, often times disallowed the court to look at the individual defendant and the individual case to decide if there were extenuating circumstances that led to the commission of the crime.
In a statement regarding the Attorney General’s announcement, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said, “The mandatory minimum sentence policy has led to severe overcrowding in our prison system and swelled taxpayer spending on incarceration and detention.”
Online Sex Crimes to be Prosecuted Offline
According to a recent story on Foxillinois.com, Attorney General Lisa Madigan has proposed that sex crimes committed online be prosecuted locally. She is asking that Congress amend the Communications Decency Act, which was put into place in 1989 to fight sex crimes on the internet. It is reported that the internet has perpetuated an increase in sex trafficking. At present, the prosecutor's office does not have the authority to go after a suspect if the crime is committed in Illinois.
If this proposal were granted it would be a big deal in the fight against sex crimes as a whole. It would mean that once an online sex crime was committed in Illinois the local authorities will have the authority to go after the suspect. Presently, prosecuting these types of crimes falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government. However, Attorney General Madigan and other supporters of her proposal feel that online sex crimes committed in Illinois should be handled by local authorities.
Judge’s Son Convicted of Drug and Weapon Charges
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Federal Officials Charge 22 in North Dakota with Conspiracy to Sell Heroin
Drug problems tend to publicized and better known in large cities across the U.S. and throughout the world. Everywhere, though, has problems with illegal drugs, including Fargo, North Dakota.
Other drugs, along with heroin, were transported to Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota from around the country where they were prepared to be sold. Twenty two people were charged with conspiracy to sell heroin and other drugs in early July.
The charges began in March when the first indictment of the investigation, nicknamed “Operation Winter’s End,” was filed.
Williston, N.D. is the quickest growing metro area in the country, located in the northwestern corner of the state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Unfortunately, organized crime and other illegal activities, such as drug activities, are also increasing as the population does, reported law enforcement from the area.
The law enforcement officials from the area and from the federal level are cracking down quickly on the recent outbreak of illegal activity before it becomes a larger problem, however. Police efforts have increased in the oil country and FBI agents have been posted in Minot and Bismarck, along with a Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco and Firearms agent, also in Bismarck.
Breathalyzers
When someone is pulled over for suspected drunk driving, police officers often use a breathalyzer to check the blood alcohol content (BAC) of the driver. The legal limit for BAC is currently 0.08. If a driver is operating a vehicle with a BAC of 0.08 or higher, that is considered driving drunk, is illegal and could lead to a lot of trouble for the driver.
Many people learn this information in their drivers’ education classes. What people do not know, however, is how a Breathalyzer can determine the amount of alcohol in a person’s blood just from testing their breath.
Although the best way to determine the BAC of a potentially drunk driver is to test their blood, it is very impractical to have to take a blood sample back to a lab to test it, then find the driver again to punish him or her. Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. said that is was Dr. Robert Borkenstein from the Indiana State Police that invented the first Breathalyzer in 1954.
Breathalyzers work to determine BAC because alcohol that is consumed and taken into the bloodstream is also absorbed into the mouth, throat, stomach and intestines. As the blood goes through the lungs, some of the alcohol from the blood passes across small air sacs in the lungs, and into the air, which is then exhaled out and into a Breathalyzer.
White Collar Crimes
Often times, when thinking of crimes, things like theft, arson, and destruction of property come to mind. There is, however, an entire category of crime that does not involve any violence, called white collar crime. Typically, these crimes involve dishonesty on a large scale often in business. Entrepreneurs and other business professionals are usually the types of people who commit white collar crimes. Because of the broad range of crimes that fall under white collar crime, it is hard to define what it is, but most states have laws that cover all white collar crime so that criminals cannot get around the law. One type of white collar crime that is more commonly heard of is securities fraud. There is a statute that covers all behaviors involving securities fraud, so long as the illegal behavior can be proven. If someone is accused of securities fraud, it must be proven that they acted willfully, not under order of someone else that may have forced them to break the law. The penalties for this could potentially be criminal and also civil. When someone commits securities fraud, there are two categories that the crime can fall under.- One form is when someone sells securities to investors for an amount that is substantially higher than the true value, such as shares of a company for a much higher price than what the company is worth. This can be discovered rather easily because prices can be easily compared online, over the phone or in person.
Man Arrested for Soliciting Prostitute during Honeymoon
Most often, honeymoons are a chance for a new husband and wife to celebrate after their wedding. Couples go to romantic international cities or tropical islands to spend time with one another. Sometimes, though, that time away from the world includes a crime or two. For one man, it was a crime that would get him in trouble not only with the law, but probably also with his new wife. Mohammed U. Ahmed, from Lincolnwood, was reported missing by his wife on their honeymoon in Orange County, Fla. earlier this month. The sheriff’s department spokeswoman said that she reported it after he did not return to their hotel room, and was then informed that he had been arrested nearby. Ahmed told the arresting officers that he was on his honeymoon, and police reported that he then contacted the undercover detective that he found in an ad online. The police said that he offered her $100 for sexual intercourse after telling her that he was “horny.” According to police, this was the second time that Ahmed had used the same website and offered a woman money for sex. Police also found a marijuana cigarette in a cigarette box of Ahmed’s that he admitted to buying from someone at his hotel. Ahmed was “charged with offering, committing or engaging in lewdness and possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia,” according to the Chicago Sun Times. According to federal and Illinois state laws, possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia are both illegal. Other items that are not created for drug use can also be used in paraphernalia cases such as credit cards, small mirrors, lighters and razor blades. If you have been caught with drugs or drug paraphernalia, contact a criminal attorney to help you out with your criminal case. Located in Chicago, Ill., attorneys at the Law Office of Hal M. Garfinkel will assist you with your drug and drug paraphernalia criminal case today.Image courtesy of adamr/freedigitalphotos
Son Stabs Father to Death in Chicago
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Settlement Reached in False DUI Case
In 2008, Julio Martinez was falsely charged with a DUI, handcuffed to a metal bar, and beaten by a Chicago Police officer in a holding room. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Officer John Haleas was “indicted and relieved of his police powers in 2008 and pleaded guilty four years later to misdemeanor attempted obstruction of justice.” In early May, the City Council’s Finance Committee ruled that Martinez will be compensated $325,000 by the City of Chicago, “but not before aldermen demanded to know why Haleas was still being paid by Chicago taxpayers,” according to the Sun-Times.
Officer Haleas was once “Chicago’s most prolific officer in making DUI arrests,” according to the Sun-Times, having accumulated 718 arrests in 2005 and 2006. After he was stripped of his badge and accused of falsifying drunken driving arrests, more than 150 of these cases were dismissed. Yet after a five-day suspension that was reduced to one day, Officer Haleas was assigned to the Records Division and is still on the City of Chicago’s payroll.
Man Convicted for Eighth DUI
Timothy Morrow, 43, was sentenced in mid-May to 13 years in prison for his eighth DUI conviction, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Round Lake Beach man got his first DUI when he was 17, and since then, “has been cited nine more times with driving while intoxicated and twice with boating while under the influence,” Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Ben Dillon told the Tribune. “Four of those cases ended with not-guilty verdicts or with charges dropped or reduced,” Dillon noted. Yet Dillon also told the Tribune that, “it defies logic that an individual that has been arrested for DUI 10 times continues to drink alcohol. It is clear that this defendant just doesn’t get it and doesn’t care.” Morrow, reports the Tribune, has already been to jail twice, “first in 1995 for DUI, then in 1996 for driving while his license was revoked.”
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics, about a third of DUI and DWI offenders are repeat offenders. “One study showed that about 3 percent of all licensed drivers had a prior arrest for DUI within the past three years, yet 12 percent of intoxicated drivers involved in fatal crashes had at least one prior DUI conviction in the past three years.” The same study reported that drivers with previous DUI convictions were about four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than first-time DUI offenders.
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