July 2010
After countless appearances in California courtrooms, one judge finally said, ''Enough!'' to Lindsay Lohan and orders her to serve 90 days in jail. She was released after having served a third of the time.
A 7 year old Oregon boy goes missing in mid-July. Kyron Horman is a second grader at Skyline Elementary School and was last seen at his school science fair with his stepmother. He remains missing, though his stepmother is the focus of the investigation.
August 2010
A federal judge ruled in late August that Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinnelli had the legal authority to sue the federal government in protest of the Obama mandate that forces every American to purchase health care insurance. Since then, several other states have stepped forward in an effort to both present a united front and stop the mandatory law.
Florida's State's Attorney Bill McCollum announced that his state would be following Arizona's efforts of eliminating illegal immigrants from coming into its state. McCollum stated his confidence that the bill would survive any court challenge.
September 2010
In what Andrew Cohen called the true ''trial of the century'', the case against David Brooks, who was at one time a body armor manufacturer, concluded with a guilty verdict. Brooks was charged with, and ultimately convicted of, massive fraud. There were quite a few outrageous allegations made during the course of the Central Islip, NY trial, including accusations of mind control, jury tampering and fears of hidden cameras. In fact, during the middle of the trial and during testimony, an FBI agent walked into the courtroom and collected the trash out of wastebaskets in an effort to find evidence of jury tampering. The evidence revealed proof of ''brothel tents'' at various get-togethers, memory erasing drugs and incredibly, body cavity searches for some who attended the trial.
Following the July 2010 release of the 90,000+ pages of confidential information, yet another 400,000 cables on the Iraqi War is released. The Pentagon calls this the ''largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history''. It will soon get much worse.
The big robo-signing mortgage scandal hit the U.S. in late October. Several big-daddy banks, including Bank of America, Ally and JP Morgan Chase, admitted to problems in their respective foreclosure proceedings. Some employees signed hundreds of foreclosure documents a day with never having read them. This has resulted in big questions when it comes to the legality and legitimacy of the legal proceedings and mortgage foreclosures.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas found himself in the spotlight in late October. His wife, Ginny, called Anita Hill and requested she apologize for the 1991 disaster that nearly cost Justice Thomas his seat. ''Good morning, Anita Hill. It's Ginny Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband''. Hill has yet to answer her.
November 2010
As promised, the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange partners with several big-name publishers to maximize the visibility of leaked cables, memos and even information that put the U.S. in a bad light. Assange is soon arrested and held in the U.K. He currently faces charges of sexual assault in Sweden. Here in the U.S., the federal government is considering charging Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917.
December 2010
Apple sued for privacy rights infringement, according to a Bloomberg report. The law firm, Kamber Law, is basing its suit on a Wall Street Journal article that said several of the technology giant's apps collects sensitive user information, including the owner's name, location and ID number without consent.
Iona College, a private school located in New York, announced its former chief financial officer had been indicted for embezzling close to $850,000. Sister Marie Thornton has been accused of stealing the school's money and then spending it on gambling junkets in Atlantic City.
With a year like this, 2011 is sure to be much quieter, right? It's doubtful. Anytime human nature is involved, there will be legalities to follow. Here's to a legal 2011!
