U.S. Marshals today seized Bernie Madoff's Palm Beach mansion and two boats.

The 2008 property tax bill was $157,298. Golden said the estate would be "monitored and maintained" and is no longer considered Madoff's property.

Other properties the U.S. is going after that will cost a pretty penny to maintain: [More...]

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has scored a big win in the "sexting" case in Pennyslvania.

U.S. District Judge James M. Munley granted a request by the American Civil Liberties Union to temporarily stop Mr. Skumanick from filing felony charges against the three Tunkhannock Area School District students.

The ACLU lawsuit argues that the photographs in which the three teen girls appear are not p*rnographic and should be protected under the First Amendment.

The DA wanted to charge the teenage girls as accomplices to the distribution of child p*rnography for taking each other's pictures at a slumber party and then e-mailing the pix around to friends. More here.

How Appealing has the opinion here.

Some people believe there is no correlation between a bad economy and rising crime rates. Others argue that desperate times create desperate people, causing an increase in property and drug crimes. The evidence does not clearly support either position.

Whatever relationship might exist between crime and a tanking economy, it's tempting to conclude (as did "Good Morning America") that the Grandma Bandit -- a woman of about 60 who has robbed four banks in Southern California since last year -- is likely "behind on [her] bills and desperate for the money." Or maybe she's just fed up with ATM service charges and rude tellers.

Congrats to Wichita criminal defense attorney Dan Monnat. A Kansas jury today acquitted his client, Dr. George Tiller, on 19 counts of performing late-term abortions. They deliberated for under an hour.

"Dr. Tiller and his family are just happy it's over, with an eminently just result," said his defense attorney, Dan Monnat. "This whole trial was political." He called the jury "these six brave souls" for not being swayed by the political consideration of the abortion debate in Kansas, where it has occasionally devolved into violence.

The charges: [More...]

The jury is out in the Phil Spector murder trial. Six months of testimony, three days of closing arguments, with the prosecutor, as always, getting the last word (they get the last word because they have the burden of proof.)

This time around, the jury has the option of involuntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense, which carries up to four years.

The prosecutor apparently borrowed some Martha Moxley-style graphic tricks in his closing today, blowing up the photos of Lana Clarkson and five other women who claimed Spector waved a gun around them when drunk. He saved Clarkson's picture for last and yelled "Pow" when it appeared, simulating a gun going off. [More...]

New York State Senator and former police officer Hiram Monserrate, a Demcorat recently sworn in to his first term, was indicted by a grand jury today on several felony and misdemeanor charges for cutting his girlfriend's eye with a drinking glass.

Monserrate insists the prosecution is politically motivated and it was an accident...he tripped. Karla Giraldo, his girlfriend, first said Monserrate was beating her. Now she agrees with his accident defense and wants the charges dropped.

How will they present the case without her cooperative testimony? Through the security camera at his apartment which captured him dragging her out the door and her banging on the neighbor's door. The neighbor heard a lot of screaming...which she says wasn't unusual. [More...]

Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio has filed his Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court (available here(pdf).) The issues: [More...]

Yesterday, I wrote about the deportation of former Nazi Guard Josias Kumph, now 83. Having lost his years of appeals in the U.S., ICE officials removed him from his Wisconsin home and deported him to Austria.

Today, Austria says it has freed Kumph:

Austrian justice ministry spokeswoman Katharina Swoboda said Vienna had warned U.S. authorities in the past that Austria would be unable to prosecute Kumpf because the statute of limitations relating to his crimes had expired. The main reason was that Kumpf was younger than 20 at the time of the crimes.

"We have always pointed out to the United States that he cannot be charged here with the crimes of which he is accused," Swoboda said.

Kumph is not a citizen of Austria. He was born in Serbia. He came to the U.S. from Austria. Even though he will be considered an "illegal alien" in Austria, he will be allowed to stay because he cannot be extradited to another country.

Bernie Madoff will stay in jail pending sentencing. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today refused to reverse the trial court's order denying bond. The ruling is here (pdf.)

It appears Madoff, facing a probable sentence that will exceed his life span, will leave prison only when he's dead.

Since the Government can continue the investigation into his relatives and friends, it's hard to figure why his lawyers didn't draw out the process, insisting on an Indictment. He would have had the protection of the 5th amendment until his appeals of any conviction were done and been able to sleep at his Park Ave. penthouse rather than MCC or an FCI for at least two more years. [More...]

83 year old Josias Kumpf, a resident of Racine, Wisconsin since 1956, was http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-crm-252.html, following his removal from his home earlier this week by ICE officials. The New York Times reports:

[Kumph]admitted that he participated in a murderous November 1943 Nazi operation that went by the code name “Aktion Erntefest” — Operation Harvest Festival — in which roughly 42,000 Jewish men, women and children were murdered at three Nazi camps in eastern Poland in two days.

Mr. Kumpf acknowledged his role was as a guard and an assassin at the Trawniki Labor Camp, where 8,000 men, women and children were shot dead in a single day, Nov. 3, 1943, Justice Department officials said.

In 2007, Spiegel Online reported Kumph obtained U.S. citizenship in 1964 but it was stripped from him in 2005, because he failed to disclose his past on his entry visa. [More...]

Bernie Madoff's accountant David Friehling surrendered today to face charges of securities fraud and other offenses in a criminal complaint (pdf). Friehling served as Madoff's auditor.

In a statement, the SEC said Friehling "merely pretended to conduct minimal audit procedures of certain accounts to make it seem like he was conducting an audit."

Accurate financial statements would have shown that Madoff's securities firm "owed tens of billions of dollars in additional liabilities to its customers and was therefore insolvent," the SEC said.

The Government does not allege Friehling knew of Madoff's illegal Ponzi scheme: [More...]

The judge in the Joe Nacchio case has unsealed his request to delay the March 23 start of his prison term.

Here's the doctor's letter (pdf) stating Nacchio has been undergoing treatment for several months for a suspicious growth on his leg. He had an appointment yesterday to see if a biopsy is needed to determine if it is malignant.

A hearing is scheduled Thursday on the request. The Judge denied Nacchio's sealing request even though no objections were lodged. From the court order: [More...]