When Governor Jerry Brown this August signed into law the California Money Bail Reform Act, he declared its changes to the state’s system for deciding what happens to criminal defendants awaiting trial will ensure “rich and poor alike are treated fairly.” That may be the case when the new law goes into effect (scheduled for […]
Month: November 2018
Article: Young Teen Charged with Felony for Taping Talk with Principal
Paul Boron was a 13-year-old middle school student in Manteno, Illinois on February 16 this year when he was summoned to the principal’s office to discuss some detention sessions he’d skipped. The partially blind student apparently thought he might need to be able to show what was said during the conversation with both the school’s […]
Article: NY Court Officers: State Can’t Handle “Raise the Age” Law
When Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed the “Raise the Age” law in April last year, it drew major praise for ending New York’s long tradition of prosecuting defendants younger than 18 in adult criminal courts. Less noticed at the time was that taking 16- and 17-year-old juveniles out of the regular criminal courts would not […]
Article: What’s Wrong About How Many Colleges Handle Reports of Sexual Misconduct?
On Wall Street, at the Oscars or Grammy awards, even on Capitol Hill or at the White House, sexual harassment and sexual assault seem nearly omnipresent subjects. As a criminal defense lawyer, I’ve seen many cases – both in the settings of a criminal or juvenile court, and even more often in non-judicial settings such […]