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Court for Fla. woman charged in husband's NY death
Headline News |
2011/05/06 05:32
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Federal prosecutors have been turning up the heat on a Florida woman accused of arranging the 2009 killings of her millionaire husband and mother-in-law.
Narcy Novack of Fort Lauderdale and her brother, Cristobal Veliz of Brooklyn, N.Y., are due in court Friday morning for a status conference.
Novack and Veliz are accused of hiring others to kill Ben Novack in his New York hotel room and Bernice Novack in her Florida home.
Last month, the government added the mother-in-law's killing to the charges against Novack and Veliz. And a prosecutor said another charge — which carries the possibility of the death penalty — may be in store.
Defense attorneys suggested the prosecution was trying to force a guilty plea.
Ben Novack's father built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, Fla. |
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LA lawsuit claims Deutsche Bank is 'slumlord'
Headline News |
2011/05/05 09:19
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The city attorney sued Deutsche Bank on Wednesday, claiming the giant international lender illegally evicted tenants from foreclosed properties and left dozens of homes and apartments to rot, many in low-income neighborhoods.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses the bank of violating federal, state and city laws and seeks potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursements to the city and to evicted tenants.
The bank's subsidiaries, Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, are the city's largest slumlords, according to the lawsuit.
The city attorney's office contends the bank failed to act properly as trustee to more than 160 homes and other residences with owners who couldn't meet their loan obligations during and after the 2008 international financial meltdown.
It's time to recognize that the fraud committed on Wall Street turns into blight on Main Street, City Attorney Carmen A. Trutanich said at a news conference.
He said the bank's subsidiaries acted as trustees for trusts composed of mortgage-backed securities involving at least 2,000 properties across the country.
The complaint focuses mainly on properties in low-income areas of the city, specifically South Los Angeles and the northeastern San Fernando Valley, but Trutanich said it could be amended to include more homes if further problems are found. |
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Supreme Court to hear another arbitration argument
Headline News |
2011/05/01 09:01
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The Supreme Court will consider a plea from companies that cater to people with bad credit to keep disputes with their customers out of court and in the more business-friendly forum of arbitration.
Days after handing businesses a huge victory by limiting class action claims against them, the court said Monday it will take up a new arbitration dispute in the fall.
The new case involves consumer complaints about companies that issue low-rate credit cards to people with bad credit ratings. The consumers said they were promised an initial $300 in available credit, but were charged $257 in fees in the first year they had the credit card.
The consumers sued in federal court, but the companies say the dispute must be handled by an arbitrator, under an agreement the customers signed to receive the card.
The federal Credit Repair Organizations Act, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, says consumers have a right to sue, which the federal appeals court in San Francisco interpreted as a right to go into court, rather than be forced to submit to arbitration. Appeals courts in Atlanta and Philadelphia have ruled otherwise in evaluating the same language in the law. |
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High court takes no action on Va. health care case
Headline News |
2011/04/17 09:57
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The Supreme Court has taken no action on Virginia's call for speedy review of the health care law.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is asking the court to resolve questions about the law quickly, without the usual consideration by federal appellate judges and over the objection of the Obama administration.
The case was among those that were scheduled to be discussed in the justices' private conference on Friday, but there was no announcement about the case when the court convened on Monday.
The silence could mean, among other things, that one justice asked for more time to think about the case or to write a short opinion that would accompany an order.
The justices meet again on Friday to discuss pending cases. |
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Court turns down appeal in murder plot case
Headline News |
2011/04/16 09:56
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The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal in a murder-for-hire plot after the star prosecution witness forged documents used at trial and lied about his military background.
The court said Monday it will not review a divided appeals court ruling that, by a 6-5 vote, upheld the conviction of Idaho businessman David Hinkson for plotting to kill a federal judge, prosecutor and tax agent. Hinkson is serving a 43-year prison term.
Earlier, a three-judge panel on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had decided that Hinkson deserved a new trial because the witness, Elven Joe Swisher, lied about his war record, including presenting forged documents.
Swisher later was convicted of defrauding the government of nearly $100,000 in veterans' benefits and wearing unauthorized military medals. |
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Wis. public court record access may be threatened
Headline News |
2011/04/10 12:06
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| pWisconsin court officials fear the court's data management system, including a popular site that allows anyone to easily look up the criminal records of friends and neighbors, could be on shaky ground if the governor's proposed budget breaks up its funding mechanism. /ppGov. Scott Walker's proposed budget would end a dedicated funding stream for Consolidated Court Automation Programs, the data management system for the state courts system. State law now gives the system $6 out of every $21.50 charged as part of the Justice Information System Surcharge included in most court filing fees. Under the new proposal, all fee revenue would go to the Department of Administration, which would give the money to the system and a range of other programs. It would also cut the system's funding by 10 percent. /ppJean Bousquet, CCAP spokeswoman, said the switch would allow DOA to move money to other programs in the future. If that happens, Consolidated Court Automated Programs would have to consolidate or cut back on non-essential services, and the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access database would likely be on the shortlist of cuts. /ppThe WCCA site provides detailed and updated information on all past and pending court cases in the Wisconsin circuit courts system and is accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. Bousquet said while they hope cuts are not necessary, the system would likely deal with budget cuts through gradual moves. /p |
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