Escaped Psychiatric Patient Had Planned Bombing
Posted: July 11, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Health and Social Issues, Terrorism | Tags: Anthony Garver, Bomb, Contempt of court, Western State Hospital 1 Comment
SEATTLE – Martha Bellislea reports: Detectives who investigated Anthony Garver’s escape from Western State Hospital south of Seattle also found that he had threatened to kill a federal judge and previously was caught with bomb-making materials.
Despite an extensive criminal history and a pattern of evading authorities, Garver lived in a ground-floor room, where he spent five months loosening his window frame before escaping through it April 6 with another violent patient.
It took almost two hours for hospital officials to report the escape to Lakewood police — a delay that concerned officers and detectives working the case, according to police reports acquired by The Associated Press.
Garver’s head-start allowed him to hop a bus across the state to Spokane, where he used self-described survivalist skills to hide from authorities for two days. He was finally caught hiding in the woods near his mother’s home — the same area where he was found with dozens of rounds of assault-rifle ammunition in 2006.
The other patient was found in a nearby city the next day.
The high-profile escape of two dangerous patients came at a time when the 800-bed hospital already faced federal scrutiny over safety violations and struggled with high rates of patient assaults. The agency that oversees the state’s mental health system also has been the target of lawsuits over failing to provide timely competency services for mentally ill people charged with crimes.
The state has accrued about $1.5 million in fines by state judges, who held the agency in contempt of court for failing to conduct mental health evaluations in a hospital or treatment that could allow a defendant to stand trial. A federal judge followed suit last week and ordered additional fines of $500 to $1,000 per day for each patient who is forced to wait more than a week for services.
The Department of Social and Health Services didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the way the hospital handled the escapes. The head of the agency released a statement Monday saying it was disappointed with the recent contempt order and believes it has made significant improvements. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: Judge Orders Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis to Be Released From Jail
Posted: September 8, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Religion | Tags: American Civil Liberties Union, Clerk (municipal official), Contempt of court, David L. Bunning, Kim Davis, Marriage License, North Carolina, Rowan County, Steve Beshear, Supreme Court of the United States, United States federal judge Leave a comment
The Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses because of her religious beliefs will be released from jail, where she’s been held since Thursday on a contempt of court charge.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning lifted the contempt order Tuesday and ordered Rowan County clerk Kim Davis released. Bunning ordered her not to interfere with the issuing of gay marriage licenses.
Bunning sent Davis to jail on Thursday after she refused to comply with his order that Davis issue marriage licenses. She had refused to grant licenses to any couples, gay or straight, since shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage.
Outside the jail where Davis is held, word spread slowly through a crowd of supporters Tuesday afternoon. Some said they couldn’t believe the news….(read more)
Source: ABC News
CNN reports:
U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning in Kentucky has ordered that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis be released from jail.
He ordered her not to interfere with clerks in her office issuing marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.
[Original story, published at 8:43 a.m. ET]
The legal battle over the Kentucky clerk who’s sitting behind bars for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses enters the political arena Tuesday as GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visits Kim Davis in jail.
Afterward, he’ll lead an “#ImWithKim Liberty Rally” outside the Carter County Detention Center.
For about 1,000 school kids in the area, it means a day off. Classes at five schools have been called off for the day to cut down traffic congestion.
Case appealed
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning ordered Davis to jail after finding her in contempt of court for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in Rowan County following June’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
Davis says issuing a license with her name on it would violate her Christian convictions against same-sex marriage.
Davis’ legal team has filed several appeals to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. It is asking that the state take her name off the licenses — a move that her lawyers say would accommodate Davis while allowing same-sex couples to receive licenses. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: Kentucky Clerk Who Refused to Issue Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples Held in Contempt of Court
Posted: September 3, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Activism, Contempt of court, Kentucky, Marriage License, NBC News, Same-sex marriage, SCOTUS Leave a comment
THE PANTSUIT REPORT: Judge Orders Clinton, Aides Not to Delete Emails
Posted: August 10, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, White House | Tags: Beth Wilkinson, Cheryl Mills, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Contempt of court, Court order, Emmet Sullivan, Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, Internal Revenue Service, Judicial Watch, Pantsuit Report, United States Department of Justice, United States Department of State, United States district court Leave a comment
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court also demanded Clinton, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin provide assurances by Wednesday that they would not delete any federal records in their possession.
Sarah Westwood reports: A federal judge ordered Hillary Clinton and two of her top aides not to delete any potentially work-related emails after Clinton’s former chief of staff vowed to discard all electronic copies of her records by Monday.
“The destruction of federal documents in the face of a court order is par for the course for a Clinton-related scandal….If not for the swift action of Judicial Watch’s legal team and an alert federal judge, there is no telling what important public information would have been lost forever.”
— Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court also demanded Clinton, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin provide assurances by
Wednesday that they would not delete any federal records in their possession.
The order came Friday evening in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch seeking documentation of a controversial employment status bestowed on Abedin, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, that allowed her to work simultaneously for the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and a consulting firm called Teneo Strategies.
After Sullivan asked Clinton, Mills and Abedin to certify under penalty of perjury that they had each submitted all work-related emails, only Clinton reportedly responded.
Mills and Abedin seemingly ignored requests that they had handed over all their emails as each continued to prepare emails for the State Department. Read the rest of this entry »
House Lights the Torch, Turns Up the Heat: Criminal Charges for Lois Lerner?
Posted: April 7, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Contempt of court, Darrell Issa, Dave Camp, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, John Boehner, Lerner, Lois Lerner, Megyn Kelly, National Review 2 Comments
The Oversight Committee will vote on Thursday on whether to issue her a contempt citation for obstructing its investigation
Eliana Johnson reports: The House Ways and Means Committee, led by outgoing chairman Dave Camp, will vote this week to ask the Department of Justice to pursue criminal charges against former Internal Revenue Service employee Lois Lerner.
“The Congress will take up that contempt resolution. If she’s not going to tell us the truth, the House will hold her in contempt.”
— House Speaker John Boehner
In an executive session on Wednesday, Camp’s panel will mark up a letter to attorney general Eric Holder that outlines “one or more crimes” it claims Lerner committed, based on evidence the committee uncovered in its investigation, while the agency was inappropriately targeting tea-party groups.
