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Portland Firm takes on Missionaries Case

A Portland law firm is one of three lead counsels involved in a federal lawsuit filed by relatives of U.S. missionaries killed in Colombia.

The suit claims that Chiquita Brands International Inc. contributed to their deaths by financing the leftist rebel group known as FARC.

Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios is representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Miami. It seeks unspecified damages for families of five missionaries from the Sanford, Fla.-based New Tribes Mission. They were kidnapped in the 1990s, held hostage for lengthy periods and killed by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the suit says.

–  PressHerald

By downeastlaw, ago

Maine Incarceration Rate Lowest

 While the Country a whole has jailed over a million and half people, Maine’s rate is the lowest.

Maine had the nation’s lowest incarceration rate in 2005, the latest year for which data is available, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The report found that the country’s prison population nearly tripled over the last two decades – rising from around 585,000 in 1987 to nearly 1.6 million in 2007.

It also found that for the first time, more than one out of every 100 American adults is behind bars.

The Pew report shows that despite recent concerns in Maine about prison overcrowding, the state has relatively few inmates when compared with other states. Maine also spends a comparatively small percentage of its tax revenue on jails and prisons.

 – MaineToday

By downeastlaw, ago

More bad lawyers

I find it hard to believe Mr. Clarke did not know his actions were a clear violation.  Then to not bother  looking it up, or contacting the Bar to find out?  He seems to have gotten off easy.

The violations stem from Clark’s financial relationship with an elderly widow who suffered from multiple sclerosis when they first met. She later developed Alzheimer’s disease and a personality disorder, among various physical ailments.

According to Mead, the widow, Eugenie B. Landry, owned a “small but valuable oceanfront residence,” which, upon her death in 2005, was sold.

The estate, which Clark controlled — and under which he was named the beneficiary — received the net proceeds of $524,000 from the sale.

“Clark ultimately took $325,000 from the estate,” Mead wrote in his opinion, adding, “He used the money to cover his children’s tuition costs and to pay off his mortgage.”

– Seacoastonline

By downeastlaw, ago

Chief Justice pleads for funding

In the annual address at the State House Chief Justice Leigh Saufley noted the need for additional funds.

Saufley also called on the state to increase funding for court-appointed lawyers. She says there has been a sharp increase in the number of cases in which defendants require state-funded attorneys, but the funding has not kept up pace.

“If meetings were solutions, we’d have this thing nailed. More meetings won’t help. The increase in filings isn’t going away. If the attorneys can’t be paid, criminal charges can’t be prosecuted, trials can’t be held and alleged victims will wait,” said Chief Justice Saufley.

– WCSH6

By downeastlaw, ago

RIAA wins a round

Those UMaine students challenging the RIAA failed in their effort to have the suit dismissed. Not sure how long the students plan to be in this battle, but it could go on for c.

Nine students at the University of Maine who are taking on the Recording Industry Association of America were rebuffed last week by a magistrate judge.

Margaret J. Kravchuk, a U.S. magistrate judge, sided with the recording-industry group. She recommended that the federal district court in Maine reject the students’ motion to dismiss the group’s lawsuit against them, saying that she disagreed with their reading of the 2007 Supreme Court case Bell Atlantic Corp v. Twombly

– chronicle.com

By downeastlaw, ago

AG files unfair trade suit

 MaineToday:

Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe has has filed an unfair trade practices complaint against a Maine oil dealer after receiving 124 complaints from customers.

The complaint alleges that Nicholas Curro, doing business as Price Rite Oil, Veilleux Oil & Service and Perron Oil, misrepresented when and how the oil in pre-paid contracts would be delivered, failed to deliver oil according to the contract terms and failed to honor customers’ request for refunds.

By downeastlaw, ago

Law students seeking to have RIAA suit dismissed

Two University of Maine law students are representing their fellow classmates against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in a file sharing suit. The RIAA filed a suit in October, apparently as a first step in pursing individual students who allegedly downloaded music illegally. The RIAA suit does not name individual students, but will use the case as a means to subpoena the school, then go after individuals.

The law students filed a Motion to Dismiss the suit based on a Supreme Court decision that rejected similar tactics.

The two student lawyers, Hannah Ames and Lisa Chmelecki, are part of the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, which allows third-year law students to gain legal experience while providing legal services for clients with low incomes, including college students.

Ames and Chmelecki have been sworn in before the court and practice under supervision of a faculty member, who must sign off on their briefs before they are filed with the court.

– The Forecaster

Here is the Supreme Court opinion.  The article incorrectly identifies it as a May 21 decision.

By downeastlaw, ago

Jailhouse Confession Admissible

Dying declaration admissable also.

AP:

A judge has ruled that a jailhouse confession that aired on TV will be allowed in the trial of a 22-year-old man charged in last April’s murder of a Franco-American singer in Augusta.

Justice Donald Marden ruled Monday that Mathiew Loisel’s interview with a WGME-TV reporter, in which he admitted to fatally shooting Jean-Paul Poulain, would be allowed as evidence at his trial. The interview was broadcast several times the day Loisel was arrested.

Marden also ruled that Poulain’s alleged deathbed identification of Loisel as the shooter, and of 19-year-old Corey Swift as the accomplice, was also admissible.

Loisel and Swift are charged with murder and robbery.

Loisel’s attorney argued the TV interview should be kept out of the trial because Loisel did not have an attorney present. Marden disagreed, saying Loisel’s constitutional rights were not violated and that he could have said no.

By downeastlaw, ago