New York Paralegal Blog

In the high-profile sex trafficking trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, the prosecution has taken the controversial step of showing the jury explicit videos of Combs and his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, engaged in what has been termed "freak offs." While the prosecution argues these tapes are crucial evidence of a pattern of coercion and criminal enterprise, a critical question arises: Was subjecting the jury to what is essentially pornography truly necessary for a just verdict, or was it a calculated gamble that could backfire? The defense has not denied the existence of these sexual encounters. Their argument, in fact, hinges on the assertion that these acts were entirely consensual. This key point raises a significant legal and ethical dilemma regarding the introduction of such graphic evidence. If the defense's core argument is about consent, not the act itself, then what is the true legal benefit of forcing a jury to watch these sexually explicit videos? Fr...

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; JANICE K. FEDARCYK, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”); and CHARLES R. PINE, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS-CID”), announced that RAYMOND MAGUIRE pled guilty today in White Plains federal court to a one-count information charging him with obstructing a federal grand jury investigating whether a New York State Senator (“the Senator”) for whom MAGUIRE worked had received a sweetheart deal from a contractor.

BROOKLYN, NY—Following a four-week jury trial, Kareem Ibrahim was convicted today in the Eastern District of New York of conspiring to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, by exploding fuel tanks and the fuel pipeline under the airport. The defendant believed the attack would cause extensive damage to the airport and to the United States economy, as well as the loss of innocent lives. The defendant faces a sentence of up to life in prison. Sentencing has been scheduled for October 21, 2011. The convictions were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York. The evidence at trial established that Kareem Ibrahim, an Imam and leader of the Shiite Muslim community in Trini...

WASHINGTON – Chun-Yu Zhao, of Centreville, Va., and Donald H. Cone, of Frederick, Md., were convicted by a federal jury in Alexandria, Va., for their roles in a sophisticated scheme to import and sell counterfeit Cisco-branded computer networking equipment, announced U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.   In addition to the conspiracy conviction, Zhao was convicted of 15 additional counts, including importation fraud, trafficking in counterfeit goods and labels, false statements to law enforcement, false statements in naturalization and money laundering.   She was acquitted on one count of false statements and one count of money laundering.   The jury reached its verdict on May 24, 2011, after a 12-day trial and nearly four days of deliberations.   Today, the jury returned a verdict regarding the forfeiture of numerous assets...

New York City Police Officers Franklin Mata and Kenneth Moreno were each found guilty of three counts of Official Misconduct. During a trial before a jury in New York State Supreme Court, it was established that Officer Kenneth Moreno and Officer Franklin Mata engaged in acts of official misconduct for reentering the apartment of an intoxicated woman whom they were called to assist. They are expected to be sentenced on June 28, 2011. “We respect the jury’s verdict, which acknowledges that the defendants’ actions that night not only violated the law, they violated the victim’s rights, and the public’s trust,” said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. “I thank our prosecutors, Coleen Balbert and Randolph Clarke, Jr., who worked tirelessly on this case. I also commend the bravery of the victim in coming forward, and in persevering through an often grueling and very public 9-week trial. ” District Attorney Vance thanked Assistant District Attorneys Coleen Balbert, Deputy Chief of the...

Update: Jury Imposes Death Sentence Against Bridgeport Drug Dealer for Murdering Three People in 2005 David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, announced that a federal jury in New Haven has found AZIBO AQUART, also known as “Azibo Smith,” “Azibo Siwatu Jahi Smith,” “D,” “Dreddy,” and “Jumbo,” 30, of Bridgeport guilty of the August 24, 2005 murders of Tina Johnson, 43; James Reid, 40, and Basil Williams, 54. The trial before United States District Judge Janet Bond Arterton began on April 20 and the jury returned the verdicts today after approximately three hours of deliberations. According to the evidence disclosed during the trial, AQUART was the founder and leader of a drug trafficking group that primarily sold crack cocaine out of an apartment building located at 215 Charles Street in Bridgeport. AQUART and his associates participated in acts of violence...

NEWARK, NJ—A Newark federal grand jury has indicted Francis X. Gartland, an insurance broker, and Thomas J. O'Leary, the executive director of the South Amboy Housing Authority, for alleged federal election fraud, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. The six-count indictment, returned by the grand jury on May 17, 2011, and unsealed today, variously charges Gartland, 70, of Baltimore, Md., and O'Leary, 49, of South Amboy, N.J., with conspiracy to defraud the United States, violations of federal elections laws, and causing false statements to be submitted to the Federal Election Commission in connection with the 2006 Democratic primary campaign of Joseph Vas for United States Congress in New Jersey's 13th District. O'Leary surrendered this morning to special agents of the FBI and is scheduled to appear this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk in Newark federal court. Gartland, who was separately charged in December 2010 for, among other thi...

WASHINGTON—Two owners of a fraudulent Detroit-area medical clinic, Martin and Joaquin Tasis, and a man who helped them launder the proceeds of the fraud, Leoncio Alayon, were convicted on 5/6/2011 by a federal jury in Detroit for their roles in a $9.1 million Medicare fraud scheme, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced. Martin Tasis and Joaquin Tasis were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to pay health care kickbacks and three counts of health care fraud. Martin Tasis was also convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering, and found not guilty on one money laundering count. Alayon was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering. According to evidence presented during the one-week trial, Martin and Joaquin Tasis were owners of Dearborn Rehabilitation and Medical Center (DMRC), a...

(openPR) CHICAGO – A jury in Chicago has found two Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries liable in the death of a Cicero, Ill., woman who died while using a Duragesic® patch, and ordered the companies to pay her family $16,560,000. The verdict in the case involving 38-year-old Janice DiCosolo, a mother of three, was delivered in Judge Thomas Flanagan’s courtroom in the Cook County Circuit Court, after a three-week trial. When Mrs. DiCosolo died on February 15, 2004, she was using a Duragesic patch that her doctor prescribed to reduce the almost constant pain she experienced as a result of a neurological condition called reflex sympathetic dystrophy. Duragesic is a patch containing a gel form of the drug fentanyl, which is 100-times stronger than morphine. More...