Did You Know?
The Check Thief
Sending checks through the mail can be risky.
Last month, the Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney charged a former U.S. Postal Service worker with stealing $1.7 million in checks from the mail.
According to a press release, over the course of 18 months Hachikosela Muchimba allegedly replaced the payees’ names with his own name, then deposited the checks in his own account.
Many of the checks that Muchimba allegedly stole were issued by the U.S. Treasury Department.
The police arrested Muchimba while he was about to board a plane to Zambia.
Source: WDCW, kiro7.com
By the Numbers
$191,000
– The amount a Wisconsin sawmill paid to settle a lawsuit over the death of a minor employee
A sawmill in northern Wisconsin agreed to pay $191,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor after a 16-year-old boy was killed in the mill.
Michael Schuls died in July after becoming pinned in a wood-stacking machine at the Florence Hardwoods’ sawmill.
After Schuls’ death, the DOL investigated and discovered that three children ages 15 and 16 were hurt at the mill between November 2021 and March 2023. The DOL also found that the company hired nine children ages 14-17 to operate saws – a violation of federal labor law.
As part of the settlement, the company agreed to not hire anyone younger than 16 and to post labels and signs warning employees under age 18 against using dangerous equipment.
Source: uppermichiganssource.com
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On the Radar
End of the Line?
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has suspended a 96-year-old judge over concerns about her mental fitness.
The order to suspend Judge Pauline Newman came after she filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the court’s chief judge had violated her due process rights.
In the order – issued unanimously by the court’s active judges – the court wrote that it had no choice but to suspend Newman.
The order cited 20 interviews with court staff, as well as emails sent by Newman, that gave “overwhelming evidence that she may be experiencing significant mental problems.”
Source: New York Times
Quotable
‘Don’t ever stop.’
– Glyn Simmons, who was wrongfully incarcerated for 48 years
Glyn Simmons has a message for wrongfully incarcerated individuals (estimated at 4-6% of America’s 1.2 million prisoners).
“When you know you’re innocent, stick with it,” Simmons said “Don’t ever stop. Don’t let nobody tell you that it can’t happen because it really can.”
Simmons stepped into freedom in September after nearly 50 years in the Oklahoma prison system.
Simmons was convicted of the 1974 murder of two women during a liquor store robbery. He has always maintained his innocence.
An Oklahoma judge vacated Simmons’ conviction after new evidence came to light.
The victim who survived the robbery identified Simmons in a lineup. But she also identified several other men in the lineup – a fact prosecutors withheld from Simmons’ attorneys and the jury.
Source: cbs58.com
Out There
Double Dealing
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court suspended a lawyer’s law license in September because the lawyer claimed credit for two online continuing legal education (CLE) programs that occurred at the same time.
The court ordered Jason R. Buckley’s license suspended for one year.
According to the court’s order, Buckley claimed credit for two CLE programs webcast on June 16, 2022. One webcast ran 4.5 hours and began at 12:39 p.m. The other ran 6.5 hours and began at 1:06 p.m.
In his response, Buckley said he attended the two programs using a computer and an iPad. He claimed that he didn’t know that attending multiple CLE programs simultaneously would violate the Maine ethics rules.
Source: ABA Journal
» Cite this article: 96 Wis. Law. 8 (November 2023).
