The land of criminal defense has been rather busy this week, with weird and celebrity news stories cropping up right and left. Here are four of the top news stories of the week:

• Fear not American Idol fans! Your favorite reality television show host Ryan Seacrest is safe for another day. Chidi Benjamin Uzomah was sentenced to two years in prison by an L.A. Superior Court judge, and was also ordered to stay at least 500 yards away from Mr. Seacrest and his places of work for ten years. Mr. Uzomah, a six-foot-four, 200-pound, former special forces reserve for the U.S. Army, was arrested in October of last year when he tried to approach Mr. Seacrest with a knife. The judge reportedly denied his request for probation with the response that “prison time was warranted.”
• A California judge has ruled that Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s former doctor, can still treat patients, and will not be losing his medical license, or at least he won’t as of yet. His defense lawyer made the point that suspending his medical license would take away his income, which would mean he couldn’t afford his defense attorneys or expert witnesses. Dr. Murray is still prohibited from using anesthesia with patients.
• While growing up, don’t you remember your mother constantly reminding you, “Be sure to wear appropriate undergarments when going to jail, honey!” Probably not, but attorney Brittney Hosrtman learned that very lesson when trying to see her client in the Miami Federal Detention Center on June 4, 2010. The underwire set off the metal detectors at the prison’s entrance, and the security guards refused to permit her to enter. Even after reminding the security guards of a memo from the Florida Public Defender’s office that allowed female attorneys to enter with an underwire, they still turned her away. Rather than leaving, she removed her bra in order to see her client. Security then told her she was dressed too provocatively to enter. Ms. Horstman circulated an e-mail about this event to her peers, and eventually the warden of the jail lifted the restriction. Now that’s a defense lawyer committed to her clients!
• Not everyone likes to read, but one woman may have taken her dislike of the written word a bit too far. A 74-year-old Boise, Idaho, woman was arrested after allegedly pouring mayonnaise in the Ada County library’s book drop box. Joy L. Cassidy was caught in the act one Sunday afternoon. She was released from jail and faces a misdemeanor charge of malicious injury to property. She is also under investigation for ten other condiment-related crimes. Librarians have reported that they have come into work to find their books covered in corn syrup and ketchup.

The sports world has been abuzz with reports of Green Bay Packers team member allegedly committing a sexual assault.

Seven players were in Lake Delton for a charity golf tournament. After the tournament, rather than going home, they stayed at the Wilderness Resort Golf Cabins. At 4:17 am, police received a call from two women, age 33 and 31, alerting them to the possibility of an assault. When they arrived on the scene, they found that the players and the women had been drinking, according to CBS Sports.

Six of the players (quarterback Matt Flynn, safety Khalil Jones, guard Josh Sitton, fullback Korey Hall, and linebackers Brad Jones and Clay Matthews) were immediately interviewed and cleared.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the seventh player is second-year cornerback Brandon Underwood. He did spend some time in a room alone with the two women. Whether the activities they undertook were consensual or not, though, is a case of typical “he said, she said.”

Police chief Tom Dormer said that he is done conducting interviews, and will take the case to the Sauk County District Attorney on Monday or Tuesday. The district attorney will then decide whether or not issue charges of sexual assault, according to the National Football Post.

Sadly, this all sounds very familiar. Only two months ago, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of raping a woman in a Georgia bar. Prosecutors in Roethlisberger’s case decided there was not enough evidence to prove that a crime had been committed.

Regardless, the NFL suspended Roethlisberger for six months of the 2010 season, as it was the second allegation against him in a year. The NFL reviews any allegations against players under its Personal Conduct Code, because of the aspersions it does cast upon their sport and their corporate empire.

Underwood is still a free man because there was not enough evidence or probable cause to make an arrest. He claims that while sexual activity did take place it was entirely consensual, while the two women report that the contact was nonconsensual.

However, the victims changed their story early in the investigation, casting doubt on the veracity of their claims. When the investigation began, they claimed that multiple perpetrators attacked them, but later they changed their tune and claimed that only Underwood had attacked them.

District attorney Patricia Barrett is expected to make a decision on criminal charges this week. The NFL has released only a one-sentence statement that they are “looking into” the allegations, and whether Underwood will be punished in a similar way to Roethlisberger.

The Journal Sentinel reports that several players have anonymously stated that Underwood has been a problem since he was drafted in 2009. Only time will tell what penalties the young cornerback will face.

Who killed Walter Barclay? According to a May 21 jury decision, it was not William Barnes.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in November 1966, then-police officer Barclay was responding to reports of a prowler when he found Barnes attempting to burglarize a Philadelphia beauty salon. Barnes shot Barclay, was convicted of attempted murder, served 16 years, and was released on parole. Barclay survived, but was paralyzed from the waist down.

Since serving his time, Barnes tried to make up for his criminal record. He was living in a halfway house and worked in a supermarket. He also gave lectures at Temple University and Eastern State Penitentiary about his desire to turn his life around.

But when Walter Barclay died of a urinary tract infection that medical examiners claimed was directly related to the original shooting, 41 year after the fact, Barnes was arrested and put on trial for the murder of Walter Barclay.

The prosecution argued that the death was directly due to the shooting. The urinary tract infection was due to Barclay’s paraplegia, which was in turn due to the shooting.

Defense attorney William Silvers, however, argued that the chain of causation between the original shooting and Barclay’s eventual death had been broken by several events. According to a May 20 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Silver cited to an extensive medical record that included three car crashes and two wheelchair falls post-shooting. According to a note written by Barclay before his death, one of the car crashes compounded his spinal injuries.

Barclay had also not been living in the best of conditions, as noted in a more recent Philadelphia Inquirer article. He had hired live-in caretakers who so neglected and malnourished him that he developed scurvy and drug-resistant bedsores. Barclay lived in unacceptable conditions and was repeatedly hospitalized until 2003 when he died of sepsis from a urinary tract infection in a Bucks County nursing home.

The prosecution noted that these events would not have happened had Barclay not been paraplegic, and therefore Barnes was still the cause of Barclay’s death.

The most notable event of the trial itself was Silvers’ sense of timing. He opened and closed the defense’s case in ten minutes, and Barnes himself never took the stand. The judge asked Barnes if Silvers had discussed this particular strategy with him. Barnes replied in the affirmative, and said that he was fine with it. Silvers believed that he had done enough damage to the prosecution’s case by relying on the medical record of Barclay.

The jury agreed. William Barnes was acquitted of murder charges for the death of Walter Barclay. However, it could be up to four years before Barnes is released because he violated his parole agreement.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced on May 24 to between 18 months and five years in prison after he was convicted of lying in court and hiding assets that could have been used to repay money he owes the city.

Kilpatrick’s political career as mayor of Detroit and as a Michigan state representative has been riddled with misuse of public funds, and illegal attempts to cover them up. Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice after text message records between him and his former chief of staff Christine Beatty revealed that he lied while under oath, according to the Detroit News.

Within two hours of his sentencing, Kilpatrick was clad in yellow prison garb and shipped to a Michigan state prison in Jackson. His attorneys said they would be asking the Michigan Court of Appeals for an emergency stay of his sentence, while they work on an appeal to the decision handed down by Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner.

Kilpatrick has exhibited good behavior during past incarceration, which led legal experts to believe he will be a model prisoner, according to the Detroit News. Experts said that with good behavior he might only serve the minimum 14 months of his sentence before being paroled.

Several people weighed in on the court decision. Kilpatrick’s minister described the ruling as unfair. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who supported past attempts to oust Kilpatrick, said no one is above the law. And Kilpatrick’s mother, U.S. Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick said she would be praying for Kwame.

“My heart is heavy,” she said. “I love my son. I will continue to pray for him and all those affected by this process.”

Michigan Department of Corrections probation officials originally said that Kilpatrick should not be sentenced beyond 17 months for violating the terms of his probation, set after he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.

The plea came after records from text messages showed he lied in court about having an affair with Beatty, according to the Detroit News.

The sentence was more in line with what Wayne Prosecutor Kym Worthy originally requested, which was at least two years in prison.

Despite the fact that Kilpatrick’s defense lawyers said any prison time would affect his ability to pay back a steep $1 million restitution bill Kilpatrick owes Detroit, the prison terms were handed down. Kilpatrick was immediately fired from his position as a software salesman, according to the Detroit News.

Kilpatrick will still have to pay back about $860,000 to the city of Detroit.

Prosecuting attorneys in Hamburg, Germany recently opened up a criminal investigation into Google for collecting private Internet data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in the country.

The legal probe in Hamburg, where Google’s German headquarters are located, could develop into more pressure on the company to turn over a hard drive used in its data-gathering effort. Google has up to now declined to turn over the hard drive, according to the New York Times.

Officials in Germany that focus on data collection set a May 26 deadline on the company to turn over a hard drive, which was used in a vehicles that compiles pictures for its 360-degree Street View photo mapping feature.

Criminal charges have not yet been filed against the Internet technology company. The investigation started in response to a complaint filed on May 17 by a German law student named Jens Ferner, who said he was looking for clarity in German law with regard to the collection of data from unsecured wireless networks.

“We are absolutely at an early stage,” said Hamburg Prosecutor Office Spokesman Wilhelm Möllers. “This isn’t something that will be wrapped up in two or three weeks. We have to analyze whether there is reason to file criminal charges.”

Google said on May 14, while under pressure from German authorities, that they had unintentionally collected about 600 gigabytes of data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks while it assembled its Street View archive. Google said the data, which was described as snippets of websites and the contents of personal e-mail messages, was collected because of a programming error.

The company said they would destroy the data in conjunction with authorities, according to the New York Times.

Google spokesman Kay Oberbeck said on May 19 that “as we have said since we made our announcement last week, we are working with the relevant authorities to answer their questions and concerns.”

Under German law, a conviction for illegal data gathering carries a two-year prison sentence or a fine.

Möllers said it was too early into the investigation to say whether prosecutors would be asking Google for one of the hard drives to further the investigation into the company’s data gathering, according to the New York Times.

Street View has been accepted in Britain and France, but the 360 photo archive has faced resistance in Germany and Switzerland. Privacy laws are stricter in the two countries, and opposition to the archive is growing.

NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor was arrested May 6 and charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl, after another man reportedly brought her to a hotel room near New York City where Taylor was staying.

Taylor, who was an all-star linebacker for several seasons with the New York Giants, was taken into custody by police while at a Holiday Inn in Suffern, a town north of NYC, according to the New York Times. The legal age for consensual sex is 17 in the state of New York.

Taylor, 51, was charged on May 7 with third-degree rape and patronizing a prostitute, according to USA Today. He was released from police custody on a $75,000 bond. Taylor’s defense attorney Arthur Aidala denied all charges against Taylor.

“We’re confident his innocence will be proven,” said Kenneth Gribetz, another attorney for Taylor.

Another man was arrested in this case, 36-year-old Rasheed Davis. He was charged with unlawful imprisonment, assault and endangering the welfare of a child. According to AP, Davis drove the girl to the Holiday Inn and told her she had to have sex with Taylor.

But when she refused to do so, Taylor sexually assaulted her and then paid her $300, which was then paid to Davis. While driving back from Suffern with Davis, the girl described what happened by sending text messages to her uncle. He then sought out the New York police Department, according to the AP.

The girl had been missing from the Bronx borough of New York since March, according to the New York Times. She had sent the address of where Davis was taking her in the Bronx, where officers found her and arrested Davis, according to the New York Times.

The girl had injuries to her face, including a black eye. Police near the Suffern area who then arrested Taylor were told by Taylor that she had those injuries when she arrived at his room. Taylor is not suspected of that assault.

Taylor lists his official residence on record as Pembroke Pines, Fla., but he owns other homes in the New Jersey area as well as New York. The Holiday Inn is a half mile from the Spook Rock Golf Course, where Taylor regularly plays.

Taylor’s NFL legacy is marked both by triumph on the field as a player, and struggles to maintain sobriety—he was suspended from the Giants in 1988 for drugs and alcohol abuse.

Police said they found a bottle of alcohol in Taylor’s room but no drugs.

“He has been stone-cold sober for the past 12 years,” Aidala said. “That was the old Lawrence Taylor. This is the new Lawrence Taylor.”

California-area prosecuting attorneys are defending the forced entry to the home of an online writer, as well as the seizure of his computers, as part of a criminal investigation surrounding a lost prototype for a new iPhone.

San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said on April 27 that consideration had been made on whether reporter-shield laws should prevent the search and seizure of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s property. But after reviewing the laws that protect journalists from having to turn over notes to law enforcement and other legal reaching into their work, they went through with the seizure, according to CNN.

Chen came into possession of what was discovered to be a new iPhone after it was found in a bar in Redwood City, Calif. An unknown person who found the phone then sold it to Gizmodo staff for $5,000. Apple then sent a letter to Gizmodo asking them to return the phone, which Gizmodo promptly did.

Yet Apple still reported a theft, which led to the search, Wagstaffe said. Officers who searched Chen’s home were from the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT), a law enforcement group based in the tech-focused Silicon Valley area of California, according to CBS News.

The search and seizure has sparked debate on whether the journalist shield laws should be applicable to this case, which would make the search illegal. However, other discussions have also begun as to whether Gizmodo’s purchase of the lost phone constitutes a purchase of stolen goods, which might mean criminal charges against the website.

Gawker Media, who owns Gizmodo, immediately fired back with accusations that the search did violate the shield laws and was a crime itself. Gaby Darbyshire, CEO of Gawker Media, wrote a letter to police that said Chen had shown officers a letter that said under state and federal law he should be protected from such a search and seizure, according to Yahoo News.

Wagstaffe said that if police delayed in performing the search, evidence might have been lost. He said that no charges have been filed yet, but the warrant used for the search did say that seized evidence may involve a felony.

“I think the people who are saying, ‘No, we should have waited’ and did it the other way first don’t understand that in the world when you’re investigating crimes, evidence sometimes gets deleted and destroyed,” Wagstaffe said. “If you sit there and work by the Marquess of Queensberry rules, then bad guys win.”

Items seized were three Apple laptops, a Seagate 500 GB external hard drive, USB flash drives, and an HP MediaSmart server.

A U.S. military court recently threw out the murder conviction of a former Marine sergeant who was charged with killing in Iraqi man in 2006.

The Washington D.C.-based military appeals court ruled that Lawrence Hutchins was not given a fair trial, since his defense attorney was inappropriately dismissed from his service just before the Hutchins’ court martial went to trial, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Hutchins is about four years into an 11-year prison sentence after he was convicted of killing Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, in the town of Hamandiya, west of Baghdad. Hutchins and eight other U.S. soldiers were charged with leading Awad to a ditch near his home and shooting him.

Hutchins was convicted of unpremeditated murder and was dishonorably discharged. While seven other Marines and one Navy corpsman were tried in the case, none of the others served more than 16 months behind bars.

Marine Lance Cpl. John J. Jodka III, of Encinitas, Calif., pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Navy corpsman Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos of Franklin, Wis., pleaded guilty to kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap and making false official statements.

Marine Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr., of Matlock, Wash., pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Marine Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson, of Tracy, Calif., pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Prosecutors working the case claimed that Hutchins led an effort to kidnap a suspected insurgent, kill him and then cover up the death by claiming the man died in a fire fight.

The killing was meant to send a warning to other insurgents to show a punishment for planting bombs along the roads in Iraq, according to the L.A. Times.

Hutchins was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison, but his term was reduced to 11 by the commanding general.

“As a mother, honest to God, I’m so happy” his mother, Kathy Hutchins, told the Associated Press. “I thank God for these professionals because they restored my faith in my country. Wow!”

The next move in the case will lie in the hands of the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, who will decide whether to appeal the ruling or proceed with a new trial, according to Associated Press. No decision about whether Hutchins will remain in prison during the deciding process was announced.

“Let’s hope Larry can come home,” she said. “It’s not like the charges can be dropped, there still can be a retrial, but we hope that he can come home and hold his daughter.”

A woman who was hired as Steven Seagal’s assistant has accused the martial arts movie star of sexual assault in a recently-filed lawsuit.

Seagal’s lawyers immediately dismissed the claims within the lawsuit as a “complete fabrication,” according to CNN. The action movie star’s attorneys also said the woman who filed the suit was fired for abusing illegal drugs.

Kayden Nguyen, 23, became an executive assistant for Seagal, after she responded to an online Craigslist classified ad asking for candidates, CNN reported. Shortly after answering the ad, Nguyen was hired, and joined Seagal on a flight to from Los Angeles, where the suit is filed, to New Orleans, LA.

“As the jet taxied down the runway, Mr. Seagal turned to Ms. Nguyen and said ‘I’m a family man, and I live with my wife, but she wouldn’t care if you were my lover,’” according to the suit.

Nguyen didn’t react to Seagal’s words right away, but the suit further alleged that she was asked little from Seagal as far as assistant tasks while in New Orleans. Seagal’s reality show “Steven Seagal: Lawman” focuses on his work as a reserve sheriff’s deputy in the Jefferson Parrish of New Orleans, and is filmed there.

Within the the suit, Nguyen claims she was sexually assaulted by Seagal three times over the course of five days spent in New Orleans. The assaults allegedly happened in a house on the outskirts of Jefferson Parrish, according to CNN.

The suit further claims that Seagal used Nguyen as his personal “sex toy,” demanding a massage on the first night in New Orleans. Seagal is also accused of groping her and ordering her to “relax” during the acts.

Nguyen also accused Seagal’s staff for not responding to her pleas for help as the assaults continued, including what was described in the lawsuit as a “vicious sexual attack” during the second night in New Orleans.

Attorney Marty Singer, who is representing Seagal, described the lawsuit against the movie star as a “ridiculous and absurd claim by a disgruntled ex-employee who was fired for using illegal narcotics.” Singer further described the claims within the suit as “a complete fabrication without a scintilla of truth,” according to CNN.

Nguyen’s attorney said she decided to not contact police in the Jefferson Parrish area because Seagal was in close contact with local law enforcement while filming the reality show.

Production was recently shut down on the reality show after news of the lawsuit filing came to light, according to the LA Times.

Three Miami cops are among at least eight city employees that have been charged with criminal activity, the Miami Police Department recently announced.

Officers Daniel Fernandez, David Valentin and Christian Alvarez-Vega were criminally charged in the first major movement by the recently-created corruption division of the Miami Police Department Internal Affairs, according to NBC Miami. Other similar investigations into corruption within the police department are expected by the division.

“This is the beginning of the end of the culture of corruption in the city of Miami,” City Commissioner Tomas Regalado said. “This is something we promised the people of Miami.”

Alvarez-Vega, a 12-year veteran of the police force, is facing federal charges of identity theft stemming from a response to a car accident on January 11, according to CBS 4 Miami.

Alvarez-Vega took an injured person to the hospital from the accident. During the transfer, Alvarez-Vega allegedly found the person’s bank card, according to documents from a U.S. Attorney’s office. Alvarez-Vega allegedly called the person later to ask for the PIN number connected to the card, claiming it was necessary for the police investigation.

The person told him the PIN number, and he reportedly went to an ATM and withdrew $460 from the person’s account.

Alvarez-Vega was released on a $150,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned on April 29, according to CBS 4. He faces a maximum possible sentence of six years in federal prison for the identity theft charge, and also for the charge of depriving an individual’s civil rights while acting within law enforcement.

Fernandez and Valentin are charged with crimes of attempting to intimidate people by threatening law enforcement punishment through their status as police officers.

Valentin, who has served with Miami PD since 2002, also worked as a property manager at an apartment complex. Fernandez, a 16-year veteran, also managed the same complex during his off hours.

Valentin arranged for a tenant to be arrested on fake charges after not paying rent for an undisclosed period of time. According to NBC Miami, the move was meant to send a message to other tenants on what would happen if they fell behind on rent.

Both Valentin and Fernandez are being charged with theft and official misconduct.

The other five people arrested in the probe worked for the city and community non-profit groups. They included city employee Alex J. Martinez, as well as Laura Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez of the non-profit organization “Vecinos en Accion.” Johnnie Brown and Vincent Cobham, who work for the Alternative Program a nonprofit group focused on community service for criminals, were also arrested.

In February, Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito said arrests would be made shortly after the creation of the corruption division.

“Our unit has been in operation for four weeks and we will have arrests,” Exposito said at the time.