Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog

Allusions and comparisons to MJ.

September 2, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Suffolk cop docked pay for criticizing commissioner

September 1, 2009 By REID J. EPSTEIN,

A Suffolk police officer and Iraq War veteran who criticized Commissioner Richard Dormer at a public meeting has been docked five days pay for his comments.

Officer Mike Simonelli, 37, who said he is set to deploy to Afghanistan with his Army Reserve unit, compared Dormer – during testimony before the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee – to a turncoat military commander who had defected to the Iraqi side.

AFA: One major faces court martial for rape, another arrested for child porn

September 1, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

September 01, 2009 4:05 PM, by: Tom Reoder, THE GAZETTE

Two Air Force Academy majors are wrapped up in separate sex crime cases. One was arrested Monday on child pornography charges.

Another will hear opening arguments tomorrow in a court martial where he’s charged with a string of sexual assaults.

Request Mast – not.

September 1, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

"The Lincoln Log On This Day." Telegraph – Herald (Dubuque). Telegraph Herald (Dubuque). 2009. HighBeam Research. 29 Aug. 2009 <http://www.highbeam.com>.

August 13, 1863: President Lincoln writes to Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt regarding Major Alexander Montgomery’s dismissal from the Army. Montgomery allegedly remarked that "President Lincoln ought to have his dam’d black heart cut out for issuing his proclamation of Emancipation." Lincoln writes, "As the principal charge, can be given the appearance at least of being merely personally offensive to me, and as [Montgomery] denies it, I think he should have a Court- Martial, rather than to abide my arbitrary dismissal. Please give him the Court-Martial if he desires it."

Army TJAG Holt- credit Wikipedia.

Ashby and Schweitzer aff’d by CAAF

August 31, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

CAAF issued its opinion in United States v. Ashby today affirming the decision of NMCCA.

Leonard Wood case over.

August 31, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Here was a story from KansasCity.com on 28 August 2009:

Soldier accused of killing set for trial, The Associated Press

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. | A soldier at Fort Leonard Wood is set to go on trial on charges of killing another soldier’s wife.

Spc. Jermaine Johnson was originally to face a court martial trial in May, but the trial date was changed a couple times. The proceeding is scheduled to start today at the mid-Missouri Army base.

Law keeps veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder out of jail

August 31, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Off topic, but interesting to see how one state has decided to approach returning combat veterans with mental health issues.

By Chris Roberts / El Paso Times

Posted: 08/30/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO — Combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder who are accused of certain crimes may soon have a choice between a trial or mental-health treatment.

Office-in-a-briefcase tip for now.

August 30, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

Office Tab.

Do you (as you should) use Firefox as your browser? If so, you are perhaps used to using tabs for opening multiple windows. I’m told even Explorer does that now. Also, Adobe and my favorite Nitro PDF also use tabs to navigate between documents. Anyway, here is a potential useful tool for your Office programs to set up tabs.

I’m a confirmed WordPerfect user – it’s so much better than Word – but I understand people are forced to use Word.

Military terminates Rendon contract

August 30, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

For whatever reason it appears the military will stop (or reduce) profiling of journalists covering matters in Afghanistan. Here’s:

Kevin Baron, Stars and Stripes, Mideast edition, Monday, August 31, 2009

RELATED STORIES:

Army used profiles to reject reporters

Pentagon: Reporter profiling under review

Files prove Pentagon is profiling reporters

Journalists’ recent work examined before embeds

In the newsroom: Military puts its spin on PR story

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. military is canceling its contract with a controversial private firm that was producing background profiles of journalists seeking to cover the war that graded their past work as “positive,” “negative” or “neutral,” Stars and Stripes has learned.

“The Bagram Regional Contracting Center intends to execute a termination of the Media Analyst contract,” belonging to The Rendon Group, said Col. Wayne Shanks, chief of public affairs for International Security Assistance Forces–Afghanistan.

LtCol Chessani’s retired check is based on his last pay amount, even if reduced to major?

August 29, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

See what you think? I’ve posted the article about LtCol Chessani not being prosecuted, but facing a BOI. One of the papers reported:

Instead, the Marine Corps will convene a Board of Inquiry to hear testimony and recommend whether Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani should be demoted to major for purposes of retirement.

Even if such a recommendation is made and then accepted by the Secretary of the Navy, Chessani’s retirement pay would still be based on being a lieutenant colonel.

“Knowing possession” of CP?

August 29, 2009 | The Law Office of Philip D. Cave

CA Court of Appeals provides guidelines for “knowing posession”.

In People v. Michael James Tecklenburg, (2009, 169 Cal. App. 4th 1402) the California Court of Appeals considered the relevance and applicability of involuntary "pop-ups" and temporary Internet files (TIF or "cache") to the applicable statute. California’s Penal Code section 311.11(a) makes it illegal to "knowingly posses or control" depictions defined as child pornography according to state law (P.C. 314, subd. d). The court specifically considered the variables required to establish "control".

In Tecklenburg, the court denied appeal based on the State’s discovery having established the cumulative applicability of the following variables:

the user actively searched for child porn;

the user visited child porn web sites;

the user explored beyond the first page of said web sites;

the user clicked on images on, at least, one web site;

the images appeared and were accessed multiple times;

the user enlarged thumbnail images;

the images were “part of a series or collection”;

the size and format did not match that of a pop-up;

similar, and sometimes identical, images were found on both the user’s home and work computers.

While I don’t agree with the entirety of the court’s findings, said computer forensics expert Jeff Fischbach, nor am I comfortable that the court fully appreciates the non-standardized and ever-evolving nature of the Web, or the limitations of computer forensics, I do think that the decision itself serves as a good minimum benchmark, or litmus test, for both prosecution and defense in similar cases.