This needs publicity. Please pass it on. Osceola Circuit Judge Margaret Waller had a Public Defender arrested in court because she couldn't proceed on a case in which the prosecution had failed to turn over the documents.

A rookie assistant public defender who exchanged words with a judge was held in contempt, handcuffed and ordered to sit with her criminal client, who consoled her.

Kemie King, 27, was handcuffed in the courtroom and then ordered to sit beside jail-inmate clients in the courtroom's jury box as Circuit Judge Margaret Waller continued hearing other cases. King was not formally charged and was not booked into jail.

....District Public Defender Bob Wesley called the incident "humiliating." The Public Defender's Office is considering filing a complaint against Waller with the Judicial Qualifications Committee, the state body that handles complaints against judges, the Orlando Sentinel reported. "It's just a bully act," Wesley said Wednesday.

....Waller complained King arrived unprepared. King replied that it was not her fault, and she did not have the proper documents to proceed. "Oh please, do not argue with me. Do not argue with me, or I'm going to put you in jail," Waller told King. King pressed her case that the prosecution failed to provide her with paperwork needed to move the case forward. There was more give and take, with the judge and King talking over each other until the judge finally aid, "Contempt."

....While cuffed, King had received consolation from Mercado, the man she was supposed to defend. "He said, 'I'm really sorry,'" King said. "I told him it really wasn't his fault."

This Judge was out of line. Judicial temperment is an important part of being a judge. If a judge no longer has it, he or she should consider private practice and move on.

Amadou Diallo was young West African man killed by a rainstorm of police bullets in 1999. His case was major news. Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about him, "American Skin (41 shots)" that angered New York's finest at the time. The cops who shot Diallo were tried and acquitted in 2000.

Today, New York City agreed to pay his family $3 million .

We like to see big awards for police misconduct. Abner Louima, the Haitian man tortured with a broomstick in a New York police precinct bathroom got $8.75 million.

Diallo and Louima have the same great lawyers:

Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld founded and direct the Innocence Project, which currently represents more than two hundred inmates seeking post-conviction release through DNA testing.

Perhaps the most prominent civil rights lawyers in America, Scheck and Neufeld represent the family of Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, and the four black and latino youths wrongfully shot by NY State Troopers.

Alleged dirty NY drug cops are allegedly cooperating with Internal Affairs after being suspected of stealing money from drug dealers. We don't know about these two cops, but we have plenty of clients who say drug cops stole their money--either outright or by claiming less was taken. It's real hard to prove. So it's real important to publicize it when it comes to light.

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Aren't you glad this cop isn't in your neighborhood? Who do you think will play him in the movie? This would be a funny story if it also weren't true.

A Brooklyn cop is being investigated for Internet postings in which he brags about beating suspects, writing phony tickets and ignoring calls to his precinct. The officer, identified by Internal Affairs investigators as a patrol cop who works in the 75th Precinct, uses the pseudonym "Brooklynbacon" and posts his messages on a site accessible through Xanga.com.

Alongside pictures of motorcycle trick riders, naked women, photographs with comical captions and pictures of human oddities, he posts messages supposedly about his job and, in some instances, his own misconduct. Any one of the offenses he describes could cost him his job.

We suspect Brooklynbacon commits three felonies before noon every day. Someone should relieve him of his patrol position fast.

In railing against an unspoken traffic ticket quota he says that officers must meet -- 10 tickets per week, he contends -- he writes: So I have come up with a better way of writing tickets. I just write down the plates of the cars that cut me off the the (sic) parkways and I send them a bogus parking ticket in the mail. The person will then have to deal with the Parking Violations Bureau and not me. Problem quickly resolved. So, in other words, be careful who you cut off on the road. They might be an off duty cop and they could write your plates down and write you a $150 parking ticket. Have a nice day."

The guy writes so much that is unique to his job that it didn't take long to smoke him out. But as of yesterday, he's still on patrol. Why?

After getting in a motorcycle crash, he got assigned to desk duty, of which he says:

"they assigned me to the wrong position.""I have neither sympathy nor remorse when people call me up complaining about their problems. I have no feelings when people complain about loud music and I could really care less if they are seeking information regarding a family member that has been incarcerated. Cry me a river."

What a piece of work.

The federal judge in the trial of the Detroit terror suspects issued a rebuke to Attorney General John Ashcroft Tuesday:

A federal judge publicly admonished Attorney General John Ashcroft for statements that could have compromised defendants' rights to fair trials in a high-profile terrorism case, but denied a defense motion that the attorney general be forced to appear in court to justify his actions.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen in Detroit, in an opinion released Tuesday, said Ashcroft had violated a court order regulating public statements in the nation's first major terror trial after Sept. 11.

Actually, Ashcroft suffered a double whammy Tuesday...the Federal Election Commission decided his unsuccessful 2000 Senate election campaign collected $110,000 in illegal contributions. The money was collected during a 1999 exploratory presidential bid. Can you imagine...Ashcroft as President?

Background on the Detroit case is here and here.

Two former Pentagon officials have been sentenced to 24 years each in a federal bribery case in which they made over $1 million and allowed government contractors to provide them with prostitutes.

Federal prosecutors said the men demanded bribes as high as $100,000 in certain cases and received $1.1 million in bribes and other illegal funds from businesses seeking government contracts. The men victimized the minority contract firms whose interests they were supposed to represent, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Neal and Jones laundered much of the money they received through a sham company and offshore accounts. The government estimated the value of the tainted contracts was $20 million.

One of the defendants was unrepentant at sentencing.

The government doesn't get it," he told federal judge James C. Cacheris. "I have given up my family life for small businesses. ... That was my job, helping small businesses to gain access. That's what I was doing."

Lawyers for the pair plan to appeal:

Their lawyers have questioned the reliability of government witnesses, some of whom were drug users who received immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony.

Somethings rotten in the Pennsylvania State Police department--in the past 8 years, 107 troopers have been arrested and 82 have been charged with crimes. The disclosure was made after reporters requested the information.

Of the troopers involved, 82 were charged with criminal offenses - such as rape, assault and driving under the influence - according to the list compiled by the Bureau of Professional Responsibility and the Department Disciplinary Office.

Of 89 criminal cases prosecuted by local authorities, 36 charges resulted in convictions or troopers pleading guilty. In 33 charges, troopers were acquitted. Twelve troopers had their records expunged by the courts; eight have cases pending.

Twenty-five troopers faced charges stemming from summary violations, such as harassment and disorderly conduct, officials said. Of those, nine troopers were convicted or pleaded guilty, and 16 were acquitted.

The police department puts some creative spin on the high numbers.

The release "illustrates clearly that state police aggressively investigates and prosecutes alleged wrongdoing by its members," he said.

A new Inspector General's report is due shortly:

The Justice Department inspector general reported yesterday examples of inappropriate sexual behavior and racial comments by senior FBI managers, saying the cases reinforced earlier findings that the FBI has repeatedly let senior managers get away with egregious conduct while meting out harsher punishment to lower-level employees for similar behavior.

....the findings come on the heels of a broader report by Fine in November 2002 that found a strong perception among FBI employees that a double standard of discipline exists within the agency. As a result of these and other concerns, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III earlier this year commissioned an independent review of the Office of Professional Responsibility, which conducts internal FBI investigations. A report from the panel is expected soon.

No, it's not the infamous Tulia, Texas bogus drug case. It's the trial of former Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz, a Dallas cop charged with manufacturing dozens of bogus drug cases against immigrants in order to meet a personal goal of 100 kilos a month of cocaine busts:

Opening statements began Wednesday in the trial of a former Dallas police officer accused of submitting false reports and lying to FBI agents in a drug scandal that put dozens of innocent immigrants in jail.

Former Senior Cpl. Mark Delapaz lied regarding drug cases in order to reach his goal of 100 kilograms worth of drug busts, prosecutor Jeffrey Blumberg told jurors. "He lied to judges, he lied to prosecutors, and he lied to the FBI. That's what this case is all about," Blumberg said.

Delapaz is charged with "five counts of deprivation of rights under the color of law and one count of making false statements to federal officials." The maximum penalty is ten years in jail.

The evidence against Delapaz includes the drugs: Some were ground gypsum or other legal substances. As a result of the Delapaz's actions, 80 drug cases were dismissed and several immigrants have sued the city. Among the witnesses will be the informant used by Delapaz-- Enrique Alonso was paid $225,000 to set up the bogus deals.

Delapaz's defense: "He was fooled by manipulative drug informants."

A former New Jersey prison guard pleaded guilty Monday to selling cigarettes to inmates at a cost of $50 a pack. He had the families of the inmates wire him the money via Western Union. His punishment will be probation and an agreement not to hold public office. His name is Wesley Thomas, 40, of Somerset, N.J. Just in case you ever see his name on a ballot.

Edwin Wilson, an arms merchant imprisoned in 1982, was vindicated today by an appeals court which found rampant prosecutorial misconduct in his case.

A federal judge Tuesday threw out the 1983 conviction of former CIA operative Edwin Wilson for selling tons of explosives to Libya, finding that prosecutors knowingly used false testimony and hid evidence that supported his defense.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes' opinion, written Monday but made public Tuesday, vacates Wilson's conviction for selling 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives to the Libyan government of Col. Muammar Gaddafi.

Wilson has been in prison since 1982, serving 52 years for three convictions including the arm sales to Libya. His lawyer thinks the 75-year-old prisoner could now be released if the government doesn't appeal the decision, which was scathing in its condemnation of prosecutorial methods.

The judge labeled an affidavit from a former top CIA official "nothing but a lie."

The Illiniois Supreme Court reversed two murder convictions today, excoriating prosecutors for misconduct it says happens way too often:

In a sharp rebuke of prosecutorial misconduct, the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday ordered new trials for two men convicted in the 1995 slaying of a Chicago police officer. The high court threatened to overturn more cases to stem what it called the "alarming frequency" of misconduct by Illinois prosecutors.

"We mean it as no hollow warning when we say that prosecutors risk reversal of otherwise proper convictions when they engage in conduct of this kind," Justice Philip Rarick wrote in the court's opinion.

....Rarick wrote that prosecutorial misconduct cannot be allowed to continue unchecked because it threatens "the trustworthiness and reputation of the judicial process, and this court will take corrective action to preserve the integrity of the process."

There was no dissenting opinion.