The Legal Arena

Maxine Trahan, longtime public information officer for the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, was charged Friday with the theft of public funds in excess of $25,000 – six months after Photography is Not a Crime began a public records investigation into allegations against the media spokeswoman.
Trahan, who has worked for the department for more than ten years, is accused of failing to deposit cash seized from citizens into the department’s bank account, pocketing the money instead.
According to the arrest warrant, the thefts date back to 2010.

A Florida cop who sped through a red traffic light, only to get t-boned by another car who had the right-of-way, was arrested Monday for blaming the other driver for the crash.
Sweetwater police officer Alejandro Ramos was off-duty but in a marked car when he claimed he first “cleared the intersection” and then “proceeded with caution” on his way to help another officer on a call.
But then a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck “came out of nowhere” and struck him that day on February 17, 2015.

The New York City police officer who shot and killed a man in a darkened stairwell after claiming he had fired his gun accidentally was spared jail time after a judge sentenced him to probation Tuesday.
Peter Liang, 28, was facing up to 15 years in prison after he was convicted for manslaughter and official misconduct in February.

A Cincinnati judge who sentenced a teen to six months in jail, released him ten days later after PINAC News brought the story to national attention.
But the Ohio judge is still holding the teen’s phone.
And the judge conveniently left that out of the Facebook announcement for his 2016 re-election campaign Facebook page.
He did, however, post on that page two Cincinnati.com stories about his unjust imprisonment of Daymar Whitehead.

A North Carolina grand jury chose not to indict a sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a man after he demanded to see a warrant to search his home last year.
Harnett County sheriff’s deputies banged on John Livingston’s door last November, searching for an assault suspect who was not at the home.
Livingston demanded to see a search warrant, but the deputies had none, so Livingston shut the door in their face.

A Florida cop secretly recorded a “hallway deposition” on his body cam of an innocent criminal court defendant and counsel, without asking his permission, in the courthouse hallway.
Florida’s wiretapping law only exempts police who are investigating a suspected crime.
But this Miami Beach officer was investigating a court case, and in so doing prejudiced the rights of the innocent, and he broke the law too.
Because he didn’t suspect anyone of a crime while having a discussion in a courthouse hallway.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton faces four new federal charges in an SEC civil court case announced today.
But Paxton still won’t resign his office.
Everything’s bigger in Texas, and the same goes for it’s top law enforcement officials legal woes stemming from his days as a lawyer and member of the Texas State House of Representatives from the suburban cities of Frisco, Allen and McKinney just north of Dallas.

A Missouri prosecutor filed a quo warranto lawsuit against the City Marshal-elect from the town of Dixon, to keep him out of office, as county police step in to keep order after a near-riot.
It’s not often that prosecutors sue police.
According to local news outlet KY3, ‘Pulaski County Sheriff Ron Long called the protest at city hall on the night after the election a ‘near riot,'” and:

Virginia freed an ex-navy sailor 33-years after wrongfully convicting him based on bite mark evidence, when the state’s high court granted him a writ of actual innocence.
Keith Allen Harward narrowly escaped the death penalty.
This week Harward, walked out of prison a free man.
DNA evidence exonerated Harward after serving 33-years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit.

A Michigan cop arrested a runner for refusing to identify herself to the officer, who claimed she was jogging down the wrong side of the road.
But the cop was wrong.
It didn’t matter, because bad legal counsel turned a clueless citizen’s bad situation into a criminal conviction.
It cost her $707 in fines.
Vera Pecaj followed her lawyer’s advice to take a plea bargain to misdemeanor charges, because she was afraid of losing possible felony verdict in court.