Posts on ‘March 6th, 2010’

An Illinois federal judge has refused to dismiss a suit against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by two Americans who claim they were detained in Iraq. David Vance and Nathan Ertel, who went to Iraq in 2005 to work for a security firm, also sued the U.S. government, alleging they were interrogated by the military due to suspicions that their company was providing arms to insurgents. They claim they were put in cages, strip-searched and questioned using “coercive tactics” before being released weeks later.

Opponents of Chicago’s handgun ban in McDonald v. Chicago argued that the high court should solely rely on secondary sources and not digital searches of original material that aim to prevent “Barbie dolls in the archeological dig,” where advocates read modern facts into the historical record.

A Manhattan law firm committed a “veritable ‘perfect storm’ of mistakes, errors, misdeeds and improper litigation practices” in trying to collect a debt from a woman, a New York state judge has ruled in ordering sanctions against the firm. Eltman, Eltman & Cooper was ordered to pay $14,800 for a series of ethics rules violations, including “disobeying” a court order dismissing the case by making “harassing” phone calls to the defendant. A firm spokesman said that an appeal is under consideration.

With the KB Home case, prosecutors hope to improve their dismal trial
record in stock-options backdating cases. Of the five cases that have
gone to trial, one ended in acquittal, one collapsed, and one of the
three convictions was reversed. Prosecutors are focusing the case on CEO
Bruce Karatz’s profit from the backdated options. It’s a relatively new
strategy that emerged last month in the government’s retrial of former
Brocade CEO Gregory Reyes, whose prior conviction was reversed on
appeal.