Browning Law News Blog

A homeless couple in California was arrested for sending the woman's three children into the Mojave Desert as punishment without shoes or water. The 7 year old girl, 6 year old boy, and 5 year old boy did not require medical treatment because a resident spotted them near a road and called authorities. It was 94 degrees when the children were found. Deputies found the mother, Mary Bell, and her boyfriend, Gary Cassle,  a short distance up the road near Twentynine Palms. They were in sight of the children, but were obviously not keeping track of them. The pair said that they left the kids to discipline them. San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman estimates that the children had been wandering for approximately 45 minutes. Bachman said that the family had been living out of their car. The children were taken by the Child Support Services department. The couple were arrested on suspicion of child abuse, and their bail was set at $100,000. Comments from Alle...

Four teen suspects were arrested for armed robbery on July 10 in Missouri. They have allegedly used the Pokémon Go app to lure unsuspecting victims and trap them in a specific location. The suspects tried to get rid of their handgun, but the officer noticed it as he approached their vehicle. The officer noticed that they had also been suspects in a string of similar robberies in St. Louis and St. Charles counties. All were arrested. The adult suspects were charged with first degree robbery, a felony, and their bonds were set at $100,000 each.. Pokémon Go is a virtual reality game that allows players to catch fictional creatures from the popular Pokémon game from the late 1990's. The group of teens managed the robbery by adding a beacon to a Pokéstop to attract more players. At a certain level of the game, players can meet at landmarks to join teams and battle. The goal is supposed to attract more Pokémon and users, so they can collect items and level up faster. Some players h...

Thomas Munson, former superintendent of Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa, was sentenced to one year of home detention, 10 weekends in jail, and 100 hours of community service for stealing ancient remains of Native Americans in 1990 and stashing them in his garage for the duration of the time they were in his possession until 2012. He removed bones from more than 40 individuals, and lied about their whereabouts for two decades. The Native Americans were not allowed to rebury their ancestors, which outraged them. The Effigy Mounds National Monument sits along the Mississippi River and many tribes consider the site sacred. The monument includes hundreds of burial and ceremonial mounds, most in the shape of animal, which were built by Native Americans around 700- 2,500 years ago. Excavations began in 1950, and scientists found bones and skeleton fragments considered historically significant. In 1990, Munson ordered one of his employees to put the remains in a cardboard box. He l...

On June 6th, there was a DUI crash that killed 11 year of Niomi James and 13 year old Jayla Parler and injured two others in Alabama. James Halsell, former NASA space shuttle commander and pilot, has been charged with reckless murder and the families of the children who were killed have filed wrongful death lawsuits in Tuscaloosa County and federal court. One of the injured passengers, Pernell James, told authorities that he was driving on US 82 when a car driving at a high speed stuck his car from the rear and sent it tumbling across the road. The girls were ejected from the vehicle. Halsell said that he thought he was on Interstate 20/59, and not US 82 during the crash. The officer who arrived on scene said that Halsell appeared very intoxicated and tried to take a vehicle of someone who stopped to offer help. Halsell told the officers that he had had three glasses of wine and stayed at a hotel in Tuscaloosa. They found an empty wine bottle and an empty package of sleeping pills....

Track star, Melissa Farrington, says that she was forced to leave school after she reported abuse from her athlete boyfriend. She claims that she was harassed and discriminated by the school's athletic department, so she is suing the University of Nebraska- Lincoln for violating the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Farrington said that the athletic department retaliated against her by canceling her scholarship after she reported domestic abuse by her boyfriend. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, including domestic violence, in all schools that receive federal money. UNL could lose federal funding if it is found that they violated the law. Farrington's lawsuit states that an athletic department employee informed the university in March 2015 that she was assaulted by a male student athlete she was dating, then university officials interviewed her, and confirmed the assault. She did not feel protected by the employees of the athletic department, ...

North Idaho attorney Joanna McFarland argued that using a drug dog at a traffic stop is overreaching and illegal, and that her client should have been released after police officers cleared him of driving under the influence. Lewiston police detained Michael Parkins while waiting for a drug dog to pursue another investigation even though they had no reasonable suspicion that Parkins had any controlled substances on him. When the drug dog arrived to the scene, he alerted police of possible drugs in the car. They found two ounces of methamphetamine in a nylon bag in Parkins' pants. Comments from Allen :  In jurisdictions all over the country, patrol officers are stopping drivers for one crime as a pretext for searching for drugs.  I see this almost every week in my practice in Idaho.  Why Idaho in particular?  Idaho has not legalized the use of marijuana, while that drug has been decriminalized to one degree or another in nearby Montana, California, Oregon and Washi...

Spirit, a psychodelic rock band from the 1960's, sued Led Zeppellin for copyright infringement over a song titled "Taurus" that Spirit had released and performed four years before Led Zeppelin released its most famous song with a virtually identical introductory melody line, "Stairway to Heaven." The introductory line from that song is so famous that the movie "Wayne's World" filmed a brief scene in a music store where Mike Meyers plays that line, only to have an employee stop him and point to the "No Stairway" sign, which is actually hanging in that store. Today, an eight person jury found there was no copyright infringement by Led Zeppelin.  A finding in favor of the band Spirit would have meant Led Zeppelin would have had to turn over a good portion of the song's past earnings to the estate of the composer of that song for Spirit, as well as future profits.  As Led Zeppelin has earned over $562 million for that one song, a l...