A Los Angeles jury today convicted former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting death of Oscar Grant a 22 year old unarmed African American male at the BART station in Oakland in 2009. They found he acted with criminal negligence when he fired a single shot into Oscar Grant's back at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.

Jurors were given four options when the original panel began deliberations Friday. They could have convicted Mehserle, 28, of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter, or they could have acquitted him.

The involuntary manslaughter verdict indicates that jurors concluded that Mehserle did not intend to kill the 22-year-old Grant but had been criminally negligent when he drew his gun.

Mehserle testified he thought he reached for his Taser, not his firearm. He was remanded into custody. Oakland prepared for a mob scene following the verdict.

The San Francisco Chronicle says it's the right verdict: "There was no reason to use fatal force on Grant, who was being physically restrained at the time."

Bump and Update: All ten pleaded guilty. They will be on a plane to Russia, probably by sundown. Their plea agreements are here. I only read the one for Vicky Pelaez. She agreed to forfeit her home, any proceeds from her story and never to return to the U.S. Some reports say some of the children of the ten have already left for Russia.

Back the '70's, here in the Wild West, defense lawyers would try to get prosecutors to agree to what we called "sundown parole" -- let our client plead guilty with no jail, he'll be out of Colorado voluntarily by midnight, never to return. Sometimes it worked.

Sounds like that's the deal in the Russian spy cases -- a guilty plea with immediate sentencing to no prison and instant removal from the U.S. [More...]

The spy swap deal seems to be moving along quickly. In Russia, Igor Sutyagin, a former military analyst jailed for spying for the CIA, has already agreed, according to his mother and lawyer. They said Sutyagin, who has already been moved from his Siberian prison to Moscow, had to sign a confession (he's always maintained his innocence) and will be flown from Moscow to Vienna to London. Great Britain has agreed to take him in. On Tuesday, the Russians gave him a passport.

Some of the lawyers for those held in the U.S. have confirmed their clients have been offered a swap deal to return to Russia. What happens to Vicky Peleaz, an American citizen from Peru? I can't imagine she'd want to go to Russia.

Ms. Pelaez's attorney, John M. Rodriguez, said the Russian government called his office Tuesday and asked whether he thought his client would be open to the possible swap. He said he told the Russian government that he didn't believe his client would be open to that. A U.S. official familiar with the matter said Ms. Pelaez would likely have to face a court trial if she didn't agree to be part of the proposed swap.

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The Indictment in the Russian spy case was unsealed today. (I haven't seen a copy and it's not yet on PACER>) Several media outlets are reporting a spy swap is in the works. The five defendants from VA and Boston have been ordered to be brought to New York. The Government has decided to appeal the Magistrate Judge's decision to release Vicky Pelaez on bail. Her hearing today has been canceled.

According to the New York Post, Pelaez and her husband aren't interested in a swap deal.

Manson follower Leslie Van Houten has been in prison with a blemish-free record for 41 years. She was denied parole Tuesday for the 19th time.

At the conclusion of the emotional three-hour hearing, the chairman of the parole board, Robert Doyle, said Van Houten was not yet suitable for parole because she had failed to gain complete insight into her crime and its motivation.

The parole board said she's still a threat to society. They had to say that, since the California Supreme Court last year said it's a requirement of denying parole: [More...]

Things did not go well for Lindsay Lohan in court today. At the end of a long hearing on a probation violation, she was sentenced to 90 days in jail, followed by 90 days of rehab. From a live blog:

Lindsay Lohan is now talking to the judge, she has begun to cry while she is defending herself. “This is my life, I’m taking this seriously, this is my life and my career that I have worked all my life for.”

- Judge Marsha Revel is now talking about the multiple times Lindsay has lied to both the court, police and others on past alcohol and cocaine use.

-Lindsay Lohan sentenced to 90 days in jail. Followed by 90 days in inpatient rehab. She’s crying like crazy.

She was given until July 20 to report and has to keep wearing her SCRAM bracelet until then. [More...]

Sunday morning, Peruvian newspapers reported (Spanish here)that Joran Van der Sloot now has three lawyers, two of whom are not Peruvian, and all three will be going to Peru on Friday. (Another article here, translation here.)The articles named New York attorney Joe Tacopina as one of the lawyers. Joe successfully represented Joran in the Holloway's wrongful death lawsuit, getting it tossed on jurisidictional grounds. I didn't write it up yesterday because I thought it was false so why repeat it?

Now I see a CBS affiliate in Alabama has picked up story. Too bad they couldn't bother to pick up the phone. It's false.

Joe is not going to Peru this Friday. Nor does he have plans to go to Peru any time soon. How do I know? I asked him yesterday and he told me.

It doesn't mean this can't change, but it's not the case now. (If it changes, I'll be glad to confirm it. I think that would be great news for Joran.) How do these rumors get started? This is the second time the MSM (here and abroad) has falsely reported Joe Tacopina is going to Peru as part of Joran's defense team.

If the Peruvian papers are misreporting facts about Joran's lawyers, what else are they misreporting about the case? And just how much of the U.S. reporting on Joran Van der Sloot is an unverified regurgitation of what appears in the Peruvian (or Dutch)press? Does the U.S. media do this on other foreign topics as well? What a disturbing thought.

Joran Van der Sloot has filed a lawsuit against the mysterious Peruvian lawyer who represented him during his murder confession to Peruvian police.

Maximo Altez told The Associated Press he filed suit Friday charging attorney Luz Romero Chinchay with misrepresentation, abuse of authority and conspiracy to commit a crime. Altez said the initial lawyer "pretended to be a public advocate when he is actually a private attorney."

"We have searched the name of Luz Romero Chinchay in the list of public defenders provided by the Ministry of Justice and his name was not on that list. We do not know why the police called this lawyer. We want to know who paid for him because my client did not," Altez said.

Also sued: Col. Miguel Canlla, chief of the police homicide squad, who conducted Joran's interrogation. [More...]

Vicki Pelaez, a reporter with El Diaro, has been granted bail in the Russian spy case.

The judge said there was no evidence she had been trained as a spy and she is a U.S. citizen. Her husband is Juan Lazaro, who according to the Government, waived his Miranda rights and confessed. He also said his name is not Juan Lazaro but refused to reveal his identity.

Peruvian news articles have been filled with articles about Ms. Pelaez, since much of her family is there and she used to work for El Diaro in Peru.

A niece of Mr. Lazaro in Uruguay denies he is a spy and says the family will be coming to the U.S. to see what is going on.

(Disclosure: BTD says Ms. Pelaez worked for him at El Diaro in the 90s.)

The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama announced today that Joran Van der Sloot has been indicted on extortion and wire fraud charges.

According to the indictment, van der Sloot caused Beth Holloway to wire $15,000 from her bank in Birmingham to his account at a bank in the Netherlands. The indictment also charges that he caused her to wire $10,000 to lawyer John Q. Kelly in New York so that Kelly could later carry that money to Aruba and deliver it to van der Sloot in person. The indictment identifies Kelly as an advisor and legal representative of Beth Holloway who served as her intermediary with van der Sloot.

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Manuel Noriega's French money laundering trial opened today. He took the stand, and appeared feeble and weak. He's 76, and recently finished serving 17 years of a 20 year prison sentence in the U.S..

Noriega was charged in France in 1999 with illegally laundering cocaine profits. He was tried in absentia and sentenced to 10 years. This is a re-trial. He was extradited to France in April from the U.S.

Noriega, the Panamanian ruler from 1981 to 1989, has insisted that the money came from his brother's inheritance, his wife's personal fortune and payments by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The CIA considered him a valuable asset for years before he joined forces with drug traffickers and was implicated in the death of a political opponent.

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The 20th Criminal Court of Lima, in a decision by Judge Wilder Casique Alvizuri, rejected Joran Van der Sloot's habeas petition today. (Miserable google translation is here.)

Another spanish version is here, google translation here. A Dutch article on the ruling is here, translation here.

Joran's lawyer has said if the petition is rejected, he will appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Costa Rica. Here is the Court's website.