Tech blogger won't be charged in Apple iPhone case

Legal Business 2011/08/15 09:25   Bookmark and Share
Prosecutors said Wednesday that they will not bring charges against a tech blogger who bought an Apple iPhone prototype after it was found at a bar in March 2010 in a case that ignited an unusual First Amendment debate.

San Mateo County Assistant District Attorney Morley Pitt said charges were not filed against Gizmodo.com's Jason Chen or other employees, citing California's shield law that protects the confidentiality of journalists' sources.

"The difficulty we faced is that Mr. Chen and Gizmodo were primarily, in their view, engaged in a journalistic endeavor to conduct an investigation into the phone and type of phone it was and they were protected by the shield law," said Pitt.

"We concluded it is a very gray area, they do have a potential claim and this was not the case with which we were going to push the envelope."

Chen's house was raided and his computer seized after Gizmodo posted images of the prototype. The website and other media organizations objected, saying the raid was illegal because state law prohibits the seizure of unpublished notes from journalists.

"We feel there was not a crime to begin with and still believe that, and are pleased the DA's office has an appropriate respect for the First Amendment," said Thomas J. Nolan Jr., a lawyer for Chen.


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Nigerian who allegedly scammed 80 law firms, lawyers out of $31M extradited to US

Headline Legal News 2011/08/15 09:25   Bookmark and Share
A Nigerian man who fled to his homeland after being accused of defrauding dozens of lawyers and law firms of more than $31 million dollars has been extradited to the U.S., Nigeria’s anti-graft agency said Friday.

Emmanuel Ekhator was arrested in Nigeria’s Benin City by the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in August. He was handed over to U.S. marshals in New York on Thursday, said Femi Babafemi, the anti-graft body’s spokesman.

“With the latest extradition, ... the message should be clear to anyone who travels abroad to commit crime and run back home to hide that Nigeria is no longer safe for them,” Farida Waziri, the anti-graft body’s chief, said in a statement. “We will get them and hand them over to face the law.”

Court records show Ekhator has yet to be assigned a lawyer. He remained in custody on Friday.

Charging documents from the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania show that Ekhator and others are accused of mail and wire fraud after using bank accounts in South Korea, Singapore, China and Japan to collect the stolen money.

Federal prosecutors say the complicated scam involved multiple players, with a fraudster calling a U.S. or Canadian law firm posing as someone usually in Asia who needed to collect a debt from a person or organization based in North America. Another scammer poses as the debtor and agrees to pay off the debt — using a fake check, authorities say.

The law firms or lawyers collect the fake check, which gets validated by a third scammer posing as a bank employee over the telephone. Before the victims realize the check is fake, they’ve already used their own money to pay the fake settlement amount to their supposedly Asia-based client.



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Court upholds conviction in parents' knife slaying

Legal Insight 2011/08/15 09:23   Bookmark and Share
The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld first-degree murder convictions against an Oakland County man for stabbing his parents to death.

Mark Ott of White Lake Township was convicted in the fatal stabbings last year. The bodies of 57-year-olds Barbara and Michael Ott were discovered in February 2008 at their home in White Lake Township, about 30 miles northwest of Detroit.

On Wednesday, the he appeals court affirmed the jury's decision to find Ott guilty but mentally ill. Ott is serving the mandatory sentence of life without parole.

The appeals court vacated Ott's convictions on two counts of second-degree murder based on double jeopardy principles. The ruling says double jeopardy doesn't allow multiple punishments for the same offense.

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