Good Lawyers in Injury Divorce DUI

With only one new opinion in a criminal case, there’s not much to choose from.  Unfortunately, United States v. Sainz-Preciado (No. 07-3706) was a fairly routine case that broke no new legal ground.  In its opinion, the Seventh Circuit (per Judge Tinder) affirmed the defendant’s 262-month sentence for cocaine trafficking over various objections to the way the guidelines sentence [...]

Broward criminal attorney finds it interesting how the media and the general public fixate on certain crimes, while many more go unnoticed and, in many cases, unsolved and unpunished. In the 1990s, several high-profile cases captured the attention of the masses, including the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the death of JonBenét Ramsey. Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney Moore believes that those cases received the kind of media attention that Casey Anthony has been receiving over the past months.

JonBenét Ramsey was a little girl who lived with her family in Boulder, Colorado. Born in 1990, she became a star in the beauty pageants for her age group. JonBenét was reported missing on December 26, 1996, after her mother Patsy apparently found a ransom note in the family’s home. The note demanded $118,000 for the child’s safe return. The figure was the same amount as a bonus John Ramsey, JonBenét’s father, had received from his job. When police and family members were searching the home hours later, John Ramsey found his daughter’s body underneath a blanket in the basement.

The police allowed the Ramseys’ friends and family members in and out of the home for hours after it was determined to be the scene of a crime, a move that has earned the Boulder police department significant criticism about their failure to protect the integrity of any evidence. The investigation focused early on the Ramseys, which also possibly prevented the appropriate gathering of evidence at the time. At least some investigators believed from the beginning that the Ramseys were responsible for their daughter’s murder, even developing the theory that her mother had killed her after becoming enraged that the little girl had wet the bed.

Years later, the Ramseys are no longer suspects. Patsy Ramsey has died and the District Attorney notified John Ramsey last year that she was “deeply sorry” for the scrutiny and harm they had endured. New evidence, particularly DNA found on JonBenét’s clothing items years after the initial crime, has completely cleared the Ramseys and they are no longer considered to be suspects in the murder.

Unfortunately, Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney Moore says that many crimes are never solved. The shoddy police work that occurred in the Ramsey case can happen when investigators prematurely hone in on a potential perpetrator, which can lead to the failure to observe or preserve contrary evidence – evidence which could not only lead to the real perpetrator, but also exonerate another suspect.

As I noted below, Prudential dropped a bombshell on the structured settlement market when they announced on a Friday afternoon at 5:00 pm that they were closing up their non-qualified structured settlement division and drastically altering the way they would handle structured legal fees.

While this one is another of those " yes we are shutting down a product line, but we are staying in the business " type announcements, it is hard to come to any other conclusion other then that Prudential's management doesn't support that market any further and is restricting dramatically the types of business the unit can write.

The sad fact is that while these announcements all put their particular spin on things, what we have for a fact is the following:

1. In the last 5 years we have had ZERO new life markets enter the structured settlement business and other then a few rumored initiatives with Mass Mutual and Mutual of Omaha that I've heard kicked around, there are no new companies on the horizon.

2. In the last 5 to 7 years we have seen ING, Canada Life, Transamerica, AEGON, Genworth/GE Capital, Mass Mutual and Aviva all pull out of the business.

3. In the last 9 months we have seen AIG/American General crippled by the collapse of the financial products unit at AIG, Hartford's credit rating and stability hammered by huge reserve requirements related to their variable annuity business, Allstate stop writing rated ages and put limitations on their per case capacity and now Prudential shutter with no notice their Non-Qualified annuity program and revise their underwriting on structured legal fees.

Ladies and gentleman could we please stop pretending all is well?

Could we also ask NSSTA and SSP to stop doing their Frank Dergin impersonations and telling us there is nothing to worry about and to move along, move along.

The cold fact is our industry is shrinking dramatically at the very time when our product is most needed and desired by trial lawyers, plaintiffs and trustee's around the country who want guaranteed, insured, tax favored cash flows that will allow them to get the most out of their money and not expose it to stock or bond market risk. I can speak only for my situation but I have NEVER had greater demand for my products, services and ideas from trial lawyers and injury victims then I have had over the last nine months during which our industries capacity to service these needs has collapsed.

During these nine months, instead of real discussion by our leadership IN PUBLIC AND NOT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS of the capacity and market concerns that threaten to cripple us, we have been treated to the same drum beats of what our industry needs to worry about by our leadership. Those being single claimant 468B trusts, factoring marketing and some mythical concern about the viability of section 130 in the next congress. The fact is from the perspective of the regular broker in our business single claimant 468B is a total non-issue, factoring while annoying at times has almost zero impact on the sale of our product to new clients and section 130 is locked in tight as part of our tax code and would take a major effort to dislodge as it is generally considered excellent public policy after 25+ years.

In short the perceived concerns and attacks have more to do with our trade associations lawyers and other experts fanning the flames of battles long ago won or lost instead of focusing primarily on new markets, new life companies, new products and new alliances.

If you want my opinion, and if your reading this far I'll assume that you do, on why we are losing life markets it is because we have lived by the motto of "flying under the radar" for so long that we have no alliances in the financial services community, no advocates outside of the settlement divisions in the life markets and quite frankly no one in a $400 billion company cares about some settlement division that gets shut down when the majority of their agents, brokers and planners can't access the product. I mean really, think about it. Who at those companies, outside of the divisions at Aviva or Prudential that were directly affected could have cared less that Aviva and Prudential shut down entire product lines?

Show me ONE Aviva agent or broker that had access to the structured settlement product. Show me ONE Prudential planner or broker that had access to their non-qualified products. The fact is they don't exist and because they don't who is there at the life market to argue our cause and promote our product in the big picture?

We have isolated ourselves as a profession, created unreasonable barriers of entry for new planners and brokers and our trade associations have pursued the interests of the largest players at the expense of growth in new alliances and products. For 25 years we have given the back of our hand to the life insurance agents, financial planners and plaintiff advocates that should have been our natural allies and we are now reaping the harvest. At the end of the day, when there is no natural allies or markets inside a life market to continue a product line, eventually the life company is going to pull the plug when hard times come and choices have to be made. Lets face it, are they going to cut their pension or regular annuity business or do you can the structured settlement division?

The long and short of it is that we are facing a crisis in capacity and I feel that we are going to see further tightening over the summer as companies continue to make tough decisions or decisions are forced upon them by market events. I hold out little hope that reactive leadership fighting the last decades battles, many of which should have never been fought to begin with, has the will or resources necessary to find new markets.

At the end of the day it will be up to the brokers and leaders who started and nourished this business to take back leadership of our industry from the life companies and build a compelling case for our product and services that attracts new money, new players and new products. Injury victims desperately need what we have to offer and we can not stand buy and wring our hands any further about business conditions. It's time to reshape our approach and build alliances and we need to get busy.

A former firefighter and Boulder police officer who fatally shot his wife and son before killing himself Monday had threatened his family members in the past, according to police.

Philip Frank Dileo, 61, shot and killed his wife, Elizabeth Schwarzenbach-Dileo, 63, and their son, Philip Christopher Dileo, 23, at the family’s home, police say. He then committed suicide.

The slaying of Schwarzenbach-Dileo and her son follows the killing of William Andrews, 47, in north Boulder in January; the April killing of Katelin Oakley, 30, in Boulder; the stabbing of Logan Sisson, 19, in Longmont.

The Oakley killing, like the Dileo case, was a domestic homicide-suicide. Police say Robert Oakley, 39, killed his ex-wife Katelin in the Boulder home they had shared when they were married, before killing himself. Police said the couple had had disputes leading up to the day of the murder.

In the Dileo case, there were several disturbing threats police have documented for years. Philip F. Dileo apparently threatened a Superior couple and others — including his wife and possibly his son. Police now say there was a clear “history of volatile behavior.” The double homicide-suicide follows on the heels of a weekend domestic dispute in Broomfield that ended when officers killed a 58-year-old man who they say killed his 50-year-old wife.

Unfortunately, this is becoming a nationwide epidemic.  This man allegedly had a history of threatening to kill his family and then crosses that fine line to actually taking action. What drives a man to want to kill his family? What was he thinking while pointing a gun at his wife, looking at her face, then pulling the trigger. Did he feel anything when turning to his son and doing the same thing? His child, although grown, still his child.

You really don’t know a person all that well. How do you know you married a sociopath? You walk down the street and look at people who pass, do you think to yourself, “I wonder if that person killed anyone”.  Often by the time you find out that a person is a sociopath, it’s too late. Family annihilators, I believe that’s what law enforcement are coining men who kill their families and then themselves.  Something has to change, far too many women and children are murdered at the hands of a domestic violence offender.

Source: Daily Camera

SEATTLE — Police here are investigating the circumstances behind the release of a man now suspected of killing his roommate at their home in the Rainier Valley area on Thursday morning just hours after his release.

Seattle Fire Department medics responding to an aid call just before 7 a.m. found the body in a three-story apartment building in the 7400 block of Rainier Avenue South.

The medics called police and the King County Medical Examiner after finding the “obviously deceased” man, said Dana Vander Houwen, spokeswoman for the Seattle Fire Department.

Police said the victim, whom they believe is the 36-year-old resident of the apartment unit, appeared to have been stabbed to death. They suspect the victim’s roommate, Valente Alvarez-Guerrero, in the incident.

Records show police first took Alvarez-Guerrero into custody after he got into an argument with the roommate. Alvarez-Guerrero was under investigation for domestic violence, and should have been kept in jail overnight as is dictated by standard policy.

But a doctor’s note became his get-out-of-jail-free card.

The man convinced investigators to let him go by telling them he had a surgery for his hand scheduled for the following day, Thursday. A sergeant in command let him go.

Several hours later, his roommate was found stabbed to death and Alvarez-Guerrero could not be found.

U.S. marshals located the man in Fresno, California early Thursday evening and took him into custody.

Seattle police said questions remain as to why the man was let go. Three officers, including the sergeant who approved Alvarez-Guerrero’s release, have been placed on administrative leave.

“Department policy is that when you arrest somebody for a domestic violence-related crime, particularly an assault, that they are booked into the King County Jail,” said Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz. “We do have some questions as to why he was released.”

A former roommate of Alvarez-Guerrero and the slain man says Alvarez-Guerrero should never have been released.

“They should have never let him go, because he’d been arguing with him for days and he kept messing with him,” said Kesha Stanley. “It would be like 12 o’clock and he would come banging on the door, trying to fight him. They were fighting and everything.”

Stanley said she used to live at the apartment with the two men, but left after the two men kept picking fights.

“I left because him and the brother - whatever he calls himself - were arguing so much about everything and me being there,” she said.

The name of the man who was killed has not been released.

Source:  Komo news.com