http://apnews.myway.com/…

A man arrested for allegedly failing to appear for jury duty was released Saturday after spending 83 days in jail, a length of detention that a judge called “unacceptable.”

Douglas Maupin was released a day after The Dallas Morning News brought his plight to the attention of a Collin County judge.

Maupin, a masonry contractor, was arrested Feb. 15 after police pulled him over for speeding. Police then detained him on a 2003 warrant for failure to appear for jury duty.

He wrote a letter to the newspaper about his lengthy jail stay, then said in a jailhouse interview that he, his friends and family could not afford his $1,500 bail.

He said his attempt to get a public defender was rebuffed by a jail clerk.

District Judge Chris Oldner said he was unaware of Maupin’s detention until Friday, even though the case was assigned to his court. The judge who signed the original 2003 warrant had retired, and officials said the case was assigned to the court of his replacement but the offense didn’t fall under that court’s responsibility.

“He should not have spent that much time. This is unacceptable,” Oldner told the Morning News. “I don’t know why the process failed to notify us.”

Oldner also said that Maupin should have been allowed to apply for a public defender.

Maupin, 34, said he just wanted his day in court.

“I do know I have the right to due process and a speedy trial,” he said. “I’ve had neither. It’s not right.”

The judge said he was “disappointed this has happened,” and promised to investigate.

I’m sure that Maupin will receive some sort of restitution for his illegitimate incarceration…

http://www.sfgate.com/…

The writings, books and other possessions of Theodore Kaczynski, the serial killer known as the Unabomber, can be sold in an Internet auction to pay restitution to several of his victims, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected Kaczynski’s arguments, filed from federal prison, that the government’s sale of his writings violates his freedom of expression.

The court said the University of Michigan, a recipient designated by Kaczynski, would get copies of each item for its collection of materials on radical social and political movements.

Kaczynski was a math professor who became a backwoods recluse and author of an anti-technology manifesto that was published in newspapers while he was a fugitive.

He was arrested at his Montana cabin in 1996 and admitted two years later that he was the bomber who had killed three people and wounded 23 in explosions from 1978 to 1995.

Restitution. Good. There needs to be more of that.

Rather funny they are to be auctioned off online. I can’t imagine there is much to sell though.

http://www.newswithviews.com/…

It’s been over a month since a team of 10, heavily armed sheriff deputies, at the behest of county and state agencies, conducted an aggressive mid-day, search-and-seize raid of the home of John and Jacqueline Stowers, owners of an organic food co-op called Manna Storehouse in LaGrange, Ohio — and tore their world apart.

The couple has not yet been charged with a crime, but they don’t have to wait to become defendants in a trial — they’re the plaintiffs in a court action launched by two advocacy groups on their behalf.

The Columbus-based Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, through its 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, and the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund [FTCDLF] filed a joint, 12-page complaint Dec. 17 in the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas against the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Lorain County General Health District and the state’s attorney general for violating the Stowers’ constitutional rights, including their rights to due process and equal protection, and unlawful use of state police power.

“The use of these police-state tactics on a peaceful family is simply unacceptable,” said Buckeye Institute President, David Hansen, in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “Officers rushed into the Stowers’ home with guns drawn and held the family – including 10 young children – captive for six hours. This outrageous case of bureaucratic overreach must be addressed.”

I don’t suspect much will come from this but one can hope the family receives some sort of restitution.

http://wcbstv.com/…

Undercover police officers who arrested four men on drug charges are under investigation after surveillance video proved the men they arrested committed no crime.

Drug charges against brothers Jose Colon and Maximo Colon, along with two of their friends have been dropped.

The undercover NYPD officers are seen on video dancing in the street, then attempting to frame four innocent men.

“I asked police officer why are you arresting me,” said Maximo Colon. “Never did I get an answer.”

The investigators swore under oath they bought drugs from the four men. Jose and Maximo colon say that didn’t happen.

“The cops are supposed to help us,” said a shaken Jose Colon.

Defense lawyers say the surveillance cameras proved their clients were framed.

“It was nauseating,” said defense lawyer Rochelle Berliner.

Two hours of video showed no contact at all between the four men arrested and undercover officers – proof that lead prosecutors to drop charges against the four men, and even declare in court the men did not commit the crime.

Defense lawyers say it’s disturbing but not uncommon.

“As defense attorneys you know it exists more often than government wants you to believe,” said Brad Wolk.

In the 6 months it took to clear the Colon brothers names, they lost their business and their savings.

As a result of his ordeal, Maximo Colon has lost trust in police officers.

The two men are now involved in a civil suit against the city and hope to one day rebuild their lives.

The NYPD is investigating the officers involved in this incident. Two of the officers are reportedly on modified duty.

Modified duty? Looks like they’re going to get off. Even if they win their civil case they’re likely not going to get enough to cover all the loses they have incurred let alone additional restitution.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/…

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that Child Protective Services (CPS) abused its discretion by seizing 468 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints ranch in Eldorado. Eugene Volokh has a roundup of the legal analysis.

CPS invited some mental health workers to the various shelters to help care for the hundreds of children. The mental health workers were disturbed by what they saw of CPS’s treatment of the women and children, and their written reports corroborate the bitter complaints of the FLDS mothers. I don’t think the news media has given this aspect of the story the attention it deserves — so here are some excerpts from the various reports that have been made public:

• “Women were constantly lied to about where their children [were] and when they could see their lawyers and about when they would be reunited with their children.”
• “Constant reminders that the adult women were only guests and that they were not in charge of the children and what CPS did to them. [The children] belonged to CPS now and they could talk, interrogate, separate and treat them any way [CPS] wanted. This included physical exams and x-rays without [parental] supervision.”
• “I sat with Audrey while three of her children were removed for six hours of questioning.”
• “The children arrived healthy and happy and left sick and crying.”
• “The door to the room was almost constantly open. Even when the women closed the door to reduce noise during naptime or to dress themselves or the children, it was almost immediately opened again [by a CPS worker].”
• “The women were lied to and denied access to their attorneys.”
• “At least 5 mothers reported that at night CPS [workers] circled their beds, held flashlight in their faces & then would sit inches away from them as they tried to sleep. Mothers reported that they were scared CPS would take their children during the night.”
• “The CPS workers were openly rude to the mothers and the children, yelled at them for trying to wave to friends and family members in surrounding shelters, threatened them with arrest if they did not stop waving to others, continually reminded them that the women were guests only and could be made to leave if they did not cooperate, threatened the mothers with never seeing their children again if they did not cooperate, and ignored requests for anything.”
• “The children were amazingly clean, happy, healthy, energetic, inquisitive, well behaved, and self-confident; while the mothers were consistently calm, patient, and loving with their children.”
• “Living conditions in the coliseum were not conducive to good health for anyone, and the presence of hostile CPS workers who spied on them constantly, kept them awake at night by shining lights in their faces and talking and laughing created enormous stress for the mothers and children. None of them slept well or enough.”
• “Try to imagine all these children from age 1 to 12 years, left in that coliseum [separated from their mothers] with only CPS and [police officers] to care for them. The only others were mothers whom CPS decided were under 18 and kept in their custody along with their children. The floor was literally slick with tears in places. A baby was left in a stroller without food and water for 24 hours and ended up in the hospital. A 4 year old boy was so terrified that he snuck away and hid and was only found after the coliseum had been emptied the next day.”
• “I witnessed a young mother named Rosinith be required by CPS to board the bus back to the ranch, though her young child was in the hospital with 104 degree fever and even though the child’s physician had personally requested the mother’s presence at the hospital. This event haunts me still, and I cannot imagine such a heartless act.”
• “By the second day, I was ready to run in front of the CNN cameras to shout that there was a travesty happening inside those walls…. Of course I was cautioned not to interfere in a ‘crime scene investigation.’”
• “I have always been proud to be an American and a Texan but this incident is not what America or Texas stands for and something must be done to undo the horrible injustice that has been done.”

CPS denies the allegations of mistreatment. But the excerpts above are eyewitness reports from objective/disinterested social workers that CPS invited into the shelters.

Justice is still not served. Not until restitution is paid and those who brought this about are punished directly. Now we need the state to return the children kidnapped from Strong City. Jeff Bent, Wayne Bent aka Michael Travesser son, was on Free Talk Live yesterday for those interested.

http://www.cnn.com/…

The state of Texas should not have removed more than 400 children it took from a polygamist sect’s ranch, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

Earlier this year, authorities raided the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas, after they received reports of child abuse.

About 460 children were taken from the ranch, which is run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a polygamist sect linked to the jailed “prophet” Warren Steed Jeffs.

Parents have denied the claims of abuse and have been fighting to get their children back.

This is a great turn of events. Just in the past days I’ve heard that another court in Texas hearing some part of this case told the mothers that if they wanted their children back they’d have to repudiate their religion. As I understand it that’s an unforgivable sin, blasphemy. If true that’s absolutely disgusting. Effectively asking them to choose between eternal damnation or their child. In any case this ruling is the first positive thing to come out of this travesty. Hopefully it continues on this new path. Unfortunately even if nothing is ever found likely no one from the State will be held responsible for this. No charges will be brought or if they are nothing will come from it. No restitution. The Nuremberg defense will be used and at worst maybe a reprimand or a bureaucrat or two will loose their job. Nothing however to change the likely pre-existing belief the FLDS had that the modern world was controlled by Satan. They have no doubt now.

It bugs me that as much as the MSM talks about this case they still don’t really mention that the original call was a fake. That the whole operation was completely unfounded. That several if not dozens of the women are over the age of 18 yet kept in custody as children. Likely they prefer to stay with the younger ones but it’s still disgusting.

Update:

Here is the AP version:

A state appellate court has ruled that child welfare officials had no right to seize more than 400 children living at a polygamist sect’s ranch.The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the grounds for removing the children were “legally and factually insufficient” under Texas law. They did not immediately order the return of the children.

Child welfare officials removed the children on the grounds that the sect pushed underage girls into marriage and sex and trained boys to become future perpetrators.

The appellate court ruled the chaotic hearing held last month did not demonstrate the children were in any immediate danger, the only measure of taking children from their homes without court proceedings.