Lawyers in the News.
1. Waffle batter leads to battery for Kid Rock. This week Robert James Ritchie’s lawyer, Darryl Cohen, pleaded not guilty to a charge of battery on his behalf in DeKalb County State Court. Ritchie, better known as rap/rocker “Kid Rock”, and 5 of his buddies were arrested after a brawl outside of an Atlanta Waffle-House last October.
2. George Karl, coach of the Denver Nuggets, has an attorney with a lot to say. Lawyer Bret Adams went above and beyond to stand up for his client this week by sending a threatening email to the creator of a website called firegeorgekar.com. He did this on behalf of, not his client, but himself. Here is the best part of his email: “Is your life really this boring and meaningless that you would spend the hours necessary to create such a website? As Coach Karl’s counsel I am putting you on notice that I will sue you into bankruptcy should you cross the boundaries of permissible speech.” Karl, who is not considering legal action, had this to say “It wasn’t on my request. It was on his friendship towards me.”
3. Client needs to clean it up in court. Judge Eduardo Robreno fined Aaron Wilder and his lawyer $29,000 for engaging in “hostile, uncivil, and vulgar conduct, which persisted throughout the nearly 12 hours of deposition testimony.” Attorney Joseph Ziccardi‘s “failure to address” his client’s potty mouth allowed Wilder to continue with this behavior and he managed to use the “F word” or variations of it 73 times during the deposition. Ziccardi argued that Wilder’s conduct was the “result of provocative and accusatory questions” from lawyer Robert Bodzin.
4. Coolant in your crest? Los Angeles city attorney Rocky Delgadillo announced Thursday that criminal charges have been filed against two American companies who distributed nearly 90,000 tubes of toothpaste imported from China containing a poison used in some antifreeze.
5. How much are your pants worth? Last Monday in Maryland a proposal stating that dry-cleaners would be required to reimburse clients for clothing damaged or lost went up for debate. This proposal was inspired by a 54 million dollar case from last November, when a Washington D.C. Judge, Roy Pearson, sued his dry cleaners over a pair of missing grey trousers. He lost both his pants and the lawsuit.
6. Police suspect that a group of eco-terrorists called the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) were behind Monday’s “Street of Dreams” arson which destroyed 4 houses (racking up 7 million worth in damage) in Snohomish County. Investigators have connected this event to other arsons in the area linked to ELF, including the 2001 firebombing of UW’s Center for Urban Horticulture. In Tacoma this week, Briana Waters was found guilty for participating in the firebombing and now faces five to 20 years in prison. Waters’ lawyer, Robert Bloom, had requested a mistrial on the grounds that jurors could be affected by the resent Snohomish arsons, which Judge Franklin Bugess denied. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Bartlett said that the verdict “sends a message that every individual involved in this conspiracy will be held accountable and sent to jail.”
