Criminal Defense News of the Week

"For nine years, New York City has fought a civil rights suit[1] by five men whose convictions in the 1989 rape of the woman known as the Central Park jogger were overturned. Officials have even tried to subpoena information from Ken Burns, whose documentary about the case opens Friday. The district attorney said DNA evidence and a review of the investigation showed that the confessions of the defendants, who were teenagers at the time, were false and that another man was the lone attacker. Police say that they did nothing wrong and that they still believe the five men were involved in the attack.

Should the city acknowledge mistakes in the case and settle this lawsuit?"

The New York Times posted several opinions from various commentators from former mayors to ministers and law professors.

- Room for Debate, "Justice and the Central Park Jogger Case," NYT, Nov. 19, 2012.

"A deaf Portland man who reported he was the victim of a domestic assault said police and 9-1-1 operators failed to respond with a sign language interpreter, hampering the police inquiry and putting him at risk.

Philip Wolfe, 39, is suing the city of Portland in federal court, alleging the city violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in state and local government services.

Wolfe's allegations highlight a gaping hole in Portland Police Bureau policy: Twenty-two years after the ADA was enacted, the bureau lacks any protocol on how to respond to people who are hearing impaired.

Wolfe is seeking a court order requiring the city to adopt uniform policies for police and emergency dispatchers to ensure sign language interpreters are supplied when a deaf crime victim or witness makes a report, requests assistance or is interviewed by police.

'During Plaintiff's contact with the police, he was overwhelmed, disoriented and hurt,' his attorney Daniel Snyder wrote in the suit. 'Plaintiff was unable to understand the police officers clearly.' "

- Maxine Bernstein, "Lack of Portland Police, 9-1-1 Policies for Interpreters Discriminates Against People Who Are Deaf, Lawsuit Alleges," The Oregonian, nov 16, 2012.

"A police car accidentally rolled over a man stopped for jaywalking in downtown Portland Monday night, according to Portland Police.

A police press release said that Jimmy Miles Duffey, 31, ran from officers when they tried to stop him for jaywalking near Southwest 12th Avenue at Columbia Street. They pursued Duffey and eventually caught him at Southwest Park Avenue at Main Street.

While taking Duffey into custody, officers had him lie on the ground, police said. When more police arrived on the scene, an officer got out of a police car but left it in gear. The vehicle ran over Duffey where they lay on the ground, police said."

- Courtney Sherwood, "Police Car Rolls Over Man Stopped for Jaywalking," OPB News, Nov. 20, 2012.

"This year's round of state judicial elections broke previous records for the amounts spent on judicial campaigns around the country. The dominant role played by special-interest money - including money from super PACs financed by undisclosed donors - has severely weakened the principle of fair and impartial courts. ***

This year's experience should at least hasten state efforts to revise rules for judicial recusal to take campaign contributions into account. Mandatory disclosure of all donations to a judicial race is also essential. Litigants cannot know when they should request that a judge step aside if they cannot tell whether their case involves a party that supported the judge's campaign."

- Editorial, "Judical Elections, Unhinged," NYT, Nov. 18, 2012