HB2 and the NBA's boycott of Charlotte

Friends, since this HB2 matter came up, I have detected a very insincere, but deliberate effort to use transgender rights to undermine women's sports. Now, Melody Wood has written about the same thing. Give her a read. The bottom line is, people who go through puberty as boys have more muscle mass than people who go through puberty as girls. That gives them a natural advantage in most sports. If we allow M to F transgenders who went through puberty as boys to compete on women's teams, very quickly we will have no women's sports at all. As the parent of two women who enjoy and even excel at sports, this is not what I want to have happen.

Walt-in-Durham

Wake DA's office involved in a cover up.

In State v. Sandy and Surpris, ___ N.C. App. ___, ___ S.E.2d ____, COA15-996, (2016) our court of appeals vacated drug dealing convictions against Barshiri Sandy and Henry Surpris. The COA found out via a motion for appropriate relief that a Wake Assistant District Attorney and a Raleigh Police Officer knew their star witness was a drug dealer. Further, they memorialized their knowledge in an email chain on the ADA's private email account rather than her government email. That allowed her to avoid giving the information of their star witness' involvement in the drug trade to the defense. Worse, for the ADA, she allowed her star witness to testify at trial that he was not involved in the drug trade!

The defendants Sandy and Surpris, denied involvement in drug dealing, claiming that the witness was lying. Of course, without the information to impeach him, information well known to the prosecutor in the court room, their lawyers were unable to convince the jury that the state's witness was lying and their clients were telling the truth. A conviction ensued. Unfortunately, for the Wake D.A.'s office, the federal government was about to indict their witness and his involvement in the drug trade come out. But, the real surprise was the emails between the ADA and the RPD keeping that fact a secret from the defense and denying them the opportunity to effectively cross examine the witness.

The COA did the right thing, it followed the law and vacated the convictions. Wake's elected DA, Lorrin Freeman, when she found out, put ADA Colleen Janssen on paid leave so that an investigation could be conducted. While the COA did not name Janssen, your intrepid blogger, through a confidential source, found out that it was Janssen who used her own email account and was the prosecutor in the Sandy and Srupris case at trial. Janssen has now resigned and is, appropriately, facing an inquiry from the NC Bar. I have known Colleen Janssen for many years, and this brings me no pleasure to report. However, you cannot use a private email account to hide information in a criminal trial without consequences. The defendant's right to a fair trial demands the state and its agents be accountable for their misconduct.

Walt-in-Durham

Freeman files a motion to dismiss.

Well, dear readers, Sid has done it again. He's filed a lawsuit that has elicited a 12(b) motion. That means the defendant does not think that, if the court takes everything Sid has claimed as true, he still has not plead a viable cause of action. The state is right. You can read about it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7z91VniTzKQU3VpdS1ONFBvWlU/view?usp=sharing


Walt

Harr III motions and order

Well, Sid continues his string of frivolous filings. He posted this response to the U.S. District Court's order to show cause.

The court, as you might surmise was less than amused. The judge denied Sid's frivolous motion to disqualify pointing out that a disagreement about the law is not grounds to disqualify a judge. You can read all about it here.

It is worth noting that the court has ordered Sid to appear and show cause.

Walt-in-Durham

Sanctions against Sid Harr?

As many dear readers know, Sid Harr is a serial filer of frivolous lawsuits in several state courts and in the federal courts. One of his perpetually failed attempts is his litigation against Duke University. Sid has sued them three times. Now, the suits are known by their roman numerals. Harr I, Harr II and Harr III. All three allege the same facts and the same legal theories about Sid being trespassed off campus many years ago. I won't burden you with a recitation of the facts, as they are mostly non-sense. However, I will report that Sid has lost twice. (Harr I and Harr II) Now he has filed again. But, he was sanctioned in Harr II and that sanction was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court when they refused to hear Sid's appeal from his loss at the Fourth Circuit. Now Harr III has triggered the court to issue a show cause order. You can read the order  here.

Naturally, Sid is not one to take such an affront to his dignity lying down. No, he knows that when he's in a hole, he has two choices, stop digging, or dig deeper. In Sid's case, he always digs deeper. He's filed a motion to recuse  Judge Eagles and Magistrate Webster. Two people he impugned in Harr II. Sid's frivolous law suits are usually entertaining, and he and Duke do deserve each other. But, Judge Eagles and Magistrate Webster do not deserve the insults that Sid likes to hurl their way.

Walt-in-Durham

Harr III

Here is a link to Harr III for your reading pleasure. My prediction, all but one defendant get dismissed under the sanction in Harr II. Associated Press will file and win a 12(b)(6) motion.

A college student, a soldier and an airman get on a train...

Sounds like the set up for  a joke. Except it's not. Three brave Americans, two of them servicemen got on a train. Hearing gunfire, they ran to the sound of guns and stopped a terrorist. The French have given them their highest honor. See the story here. But, to quote Abraham Lincoln, "the world will little note, nor long remember what we say" about these brave young Americans, "but, it can never forget what they did...." Spencer Stone, 23, Alek Skarlatos, 22, Anthony Sadler, 23 are brave and deserve to be long remembered for what they did.