Posted on June 14, 2013 in Divorce

Newspaper Tycoon Rupert Murdoch has filed divorce from his third wife, Wendi Deng. Murdoch and Deng have been married for 14 years and she recently made headlines for physically defending her husband from would-be pie thrower.

The incident happened when the 82-year-old media mogul was testifying before Parliament in London regarding the phone-hacking activities of some of his reporters. During the testimony a comedian ran at Murdoch with a shaving-foam pie but Deng, who was sitting behind Murdoch, quickly leapt up and smashed the comedian's hand.

"Mr. Murdoch, your wife has a pretty good left hook," said parliamentarian Tom Watson, who had been grilling the businessman just minutes earlier.

Chinese-born Deng has a masters degree from Yale and met Murdoch while working for one of his Hong Kong-based TV companies. She served as Murdoch's interpreter as he toured the Chinese mainland and he quickly launched a feverish courtship.

Deng gave birth to two children during the marriage and it is unclear how much of Murdoch's $11.2 billion fortune they stand to receive in this split. It is also unclear whether the couple signed a prenuptial agreement, but many experts say that is inconceivable that they wouldn't have one given Murdoch's extreme wealth and prior divorces.

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 Posted on June 11, 2013 in Criminal Defense

Being in the criminal system can be a scary enough situation for anyone. Your future is dependent on what your attorney brings to the table. How it is received by the judge, jury and prosecutor can determine your future. It might seem that too many people have your life at their disposal. Ensuring you are properly represented is crucial, and having an attorney who clearly understands both the defense and the prosecutioncan aid your case immensely.

The level of difference between a prosecutor and a defense attorney is evident in the way each does their job. A prosecutors job is to prove the defendant’s guilt; without proof, the defendant goes free. If evidence is available, the prosecutor will use whatever it takes to win the case. The research, the knowledge of emotional ties to a jury, and ability to appeal to a judge’s reasoning are all tactics a prosecutor uses to win a guilty verdict. On the other hand, a defense attorney has to just implant a seed of doubt to get a not guilty verdict. They do not have to prove anything. They can appeal to emotions as well, but it is to find doubt in the prosecutors story, rather than fact.

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 Posted on June 09, 2013 in Prenuptial Agreements

A Rock County court recently upheld a prenuptial agreement in a high net worth divorce case.

The wife filed for divorce in September of 2009 and the husband found the prenuptial agreement nearly a year and a half later. The husband sought to enforce the prenuptial agreement and a trial court found that it was valid and enforceable with the exception of the maintenance waiver provision. The court then awarded the wife permanent maintenance of $6,515 per month.

In finding the maintenance waiver unenforceable, the court cited the fact that the couple had been married for over 30 years, during which time the husband established and maintained control over the wife's business, personal and retirement finances.

The court was unsympathetic to the wife's arguments that she would be unable to maintain her country club membership at her level of alimony, characterizing her former standard of living as "extravagant." The court did note however that the wife was drawing a significantly lower level of Social Security payments because of a plan contrived by the husband and his accountant to divert her social security contributions back to the family business.

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 Posted on June 07, 2013 in Criminal Defense

The United States seems to have a great government and justice system, but it can only be kept that way if the people working for our country are kept in check just as any business would keep its employees in check. Recently, Illinois found that it had a bit of work to do to keep it’s law enforcement system running smoothly when it was found that evidence from rape cases were not being submitted for testing in labs.

The Illinois State Police were sent 51 sexual assault kits from previous cases to the Illinois State Police for investigation after being found untested in the Robbins Police Department evidence room according to Tom Dart, Cook County Sheriff.

Dart said, “The victims should know they will have their cases heard, and they will be treated like they should have been treated. My goal is to bring justice to these folks.”

He added that the untested kits date back as far as 1986 and they were found alongside guns that were supposed to be sent into the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace the ownership for cases as well.

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 Posted on June 03, 2013 in Expungement

A criminal record is serious and can hurt your future employment prospects. If you have a certain type of arrest, probation, or supervision on your record with no conviction, the state of Illinois does leave it possible for you to get your record expunged under Section 5.2 of the Criminal Identification Act (20 ILCS 263 0/5.2). Expungement eliminates a case brought up against you from your record as if it never existed. Expungement can be a good way to start fresh after an incident.

However, in order to have your record expunged, you must have had no prior criminal offense or municipal ordinance violation.If you have been convicted of either, your records can be sealed, so that your record is not public knowledge.

Expungement or sealing of records can only be applied in criminal cases and not in cases such as traffic offenses, divorces and orders of protection. In cases where you do not qualify for expungement, you can seek out the governor for a pardon for your conviction, in which case your record will be erased for that case. This, however, is quite rare.

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 Posted on May 31, 2013 in Hit and Run

A 40-year-old man from Chicago was involved in a fatal hit-and-run on March 21 and has been charged with “leaving the scene of an injury/death accident, driving with a revoked license, not giving the right of way to a pedestrian and not having insurance,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

Fernando Marin was driving down South Homan Avenue when a woman and her sister were crossing the street. Marin tried to turn left as the traffic lights were changing from green to yellow, but he did not yield to the woman. Ida Quintanilla, 58, was fatally injured in the crash. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where she was pronounced dead. A 35-year-old woman was also injured in the crash. However, her injuries are not life-threatening. Marin continued driving after the crash and fled the scene of the crime without slowing down, according to court documents.

A witness managed to get the license plate number for the vehicle that was involved in the hit-and-run, and authorities were able to trace it to Marin. It turned out that the owner of the truck was the suspect’s girlfriend. There was blood on the car and its grill was cracked.

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 Posted on May 27, 2013 in Violent Crime

When watching shows like Law & Order or even the news, the terms manslaughter, homicide, and murder are used frequently and very rarely explained. However, it can be helpful to be aware of the technical differences between the three terms.

In the state of Illinois, homicide is defined as the killing of one person by another. Murder and manslaughter are different types of homicide.

Homicides can be classified as criminal, excusable, or justifiable. Criminal homicides are classified as unjustifiable and lead to very severe consequences. If the homicide is excusable or justifiable, there was no criminal intent to kill someone (for example self-defense, defending another person, etc.)

Murder in particular is defined as the unlawful killing of another human being with malice. There are four different ways that malice can be shown, according to the state. These ways include the intent to kill, the intent to inflict great bodily injury, reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life, and the intent to commit a felony.

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 Posted on May 23, 2013 in Criminal Defense

The term “assault and battery” is thrown around a lot: on the news, on TV, etc. Although it may seem that the two words are interchangeable, there are some very important differences between them.

To begin, assault and battery are two distinct offenses. It is impossible for you to commit “assault and battery”; it’s one or the other.

According to the Illinois Criminal Code, there are two main categories of crime: “offenses directed against property,” and “offenses directed against the person.” The later category includes homicide, kidnapping, sex offenses, and “bodily harm.” Assault and battery are the two main “bodily harm” offenses.

The Illinois Criminal Code states that assault has occurred when somebody “engages in conduct which places another in reasonable apprehension of receiving a battery.” Essentially, assault is a threat, which could be real or simply implied, of a battery.

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 Posted on May 19, 2013 in Criminal Defense

Although nowadays we take the right to an attorney in a criminal trial for granted, most people don’t know that this right is only about 50 years old. What’s more, the right might never have come into effect without one man: Clarence Earl Gideon. Clarence Earl Gideon was a poor drifter who was accused in a Florida court of felony theft. He had stolen a measly amount of money and a few bottles of beer and soda from a beer joint. Gideon could not afford the assistance of a lawyer and the state of Florida would not provide him with one. Gideon had to represent himself at his own trial and he lost the case. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Gideon did not give up, however. He studied the US legal system and decided that his constitutional rights had been violated. The Sixth Amendment states that “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.” Gideon wrote a petition to the Supreme Court of the United States which agreed to hear his appeal. Eventually, the Supreme Court decided that “a criminal defendant who cannot afford to hire a lawyer must be provided with a lawyer at no cost.” Gideon was later acquitted in another trial. In 1963, Robert F. Kennedy said that “If an obscure Florida convict named Clarence Earl Gideon had not sat down in prison with a pencil and paper to write a letter to the Supreme Court; and if the Supreme Court had not taken the trouble to look at the merits in that one crude petition among all the bundles of mail it must receive every day, the vast machinery of American law would have gone on functioning undisturbed.” If you are facing criminal charges, remember your rights. Contact a skilled criminal defense attorney in Chicago, Illinois today.

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 Posted on May 16, 2013 in White Collar Crime

White collar crimes are not specifically defined, however, they are most often considered to be a variety of nonviolent crimes that are based around dishonesty and/or cheating. Usually, these crimes are committed by entrepreneurs and other professionals in the business area that are under the cover of a legitimate business activity. White collar crimes also typically have a lesser punishment than other crimes because they are nonviolent. Although these crimes do not have severe punishments, they do usually involve very heavy fines, and can include jail time. There are very specific laws that prohibit white collar crime activities, but many of them are covered in less specific catch-all laws that prohibit dishonest behavior.

Embezzlement

If someone take another’s money or property by ways of an official job position of trust or through abuse, they have committed embezzlement. For example, an accountant with access to all personal financial information may falsify records to gain a profit from his or her client(s). Bank tellers, as well, have easy access to finances and may walk away each day with a small amount of money from a client instead of placing it in the client’s account as he or she should.

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