I have followed the Duke Lacrosse Players’ case since the inception and it is clear to me that the D.A. has abused the system and the easy indictment process by indicting these young players so quickly. According to reports that I have heard in the media, the discovery that he handed over to the defense contained statements the “alleged victim” made to the police which were inconsistent and even said that no rape occurred. I have practiced criminal law for over ten years and I not seen a prosecutor this reckless. It was clear from his statements in  court hearing last week that there was evidence that he had not reviewed. Despite the fact that apparently this “alleged victim” has falsely charged people in the past, her statements are inconsistent with respect to the alleged rape, the forensic tests such as DNA do not corroborate her story, and she is stripper, this district attorney has proceeded  with the worst rape prosecution that I have ever seen or heard of. Not only does the “alleged victim’s” story not pass muster, this D.A. must be an absolute idiot!!! These young men at Duke need to get this case dismissed and then sue this overzealous, insipid district attorney for malicious prosecution and take away some of his peace and dignity. In fact, he deserves jail time for his reckless prosecution of these boys and as we say in the South “  a good ass-whipping!!!”  This is an abuse of process and some action should be taken against D.A. Mike Nifong!!!   

 

GALLATIN PRINCIPAL LASSITER IS NO ROLE MODEL  The principal of Gallatin High School, Rufus Lassiter, has charged the valedictorian of the 2006 Gallatin High School graduating class, Chris Linzy, with disorderly conduct and withheld his diploma. This is one of the most abusive actions I have ever heard of by a school administrator.

Tennessee law defines “disorderly conduct” at Tenn. Code Annotated section 39-17-305 which states as follows: “Disorderly Conduct—-

(a) A person commits an offense who, in a public place and with intent to cause public annoyance or alarm: 

(1)   Engages in fighting or in violent or threatening behavior; 

(2)    Refuses to obey an official order to disperse  issued to maintain public safety in dangerous proximity to a fire, hazard or other emergency; or 

(3)   Creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act that serves no legitimate purpose. 

(b) A person also violates this section who makes unreasonable noise which prevents others from carrying on lawful activities. 

© A violation of this section is a Class C misdemeanor. 

The valedictorian did not violate this statute in my opinion. This is clearly the actions of an abusive school principal. It is easy to take a warrant out on someone. This case should be dismissed and the Court should order that the bonehead principal at Gallatin apologize to Mr. Linzy in public.   

It is clear that The Commercial Appeal has a bias against Congressman Blackburn and the Appeal’s  Woodward and Bernstein wanna-be reporter, Bartholomew Sullivan, has sought information on a continuous basis to write negative reports about the Congressman and her family as if he is writing for a John Grisham book. Despite the false light he puts the Congressman in, the Congressman has not violated any laws and she will not. Congressman Blackburn is above reproach!!! The attempts by the hack reporting of The Commercial Appeal to besmirch the good name of Congressman Blackburn are mean-spirited political attacks which deserve no credence. (These are my opinions and mine alone and they have not been approved by the Congressman.)

By Bartholomew Sullivan
sullivanb@shns.com
April 25, 2006

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s campaign committee paid a $1,500 fine and entered into a negotiated settlement in a dispute with the Federal Elections Commission last month after an inquiry found the committee underreported contributions by more than $61,800.

The FEC also found that Blackburn’s committee failed to accurately report $50,046 in disbursements. The campaign committee’s Nashville lawyer, Kline Preston, signed the agreement with the FEC in which the reporting errors are referred to as an “inadvertent violation” of federal election laws due to “inexperienced staff.” Corrected reports were later submitted.

Blackburn, R-Tenn., is seeking her third term in a district that includes parts of eastern Shelby County. Neither her congressional press spokesman nor Preston responded to requests for comment Monday.

 
The $1,500 payment to the FEC is noted in Blackburn’s April quarterly filing to the FEC with the reference “Other: ADR,” an abbreviation for alternative dispute resolution. The three-month report also records payments totaling $3,874 for office supplies and $2,380 for legal services. The committee has $617,251 in cash on hand.

 
The Commercial Appeal reported earlier this month that the FEC cited Blackburn’s political action committee, Wedge PAC, for making an excessive contribution to her campaign committee in December. Her son-in-law, lobbyist Paul J. Ketchel III, had been Wedge PAC’s treasurer at the time of that contribution. The overpayment was later reimbursed.

 
In February, the newspaper reported that the Blackburn campaign and Wedge PAC had paid more than $123,000 since November 2002 for political consultations and fund-raising assistance to Political Concepts LLC, a company founded by Ketchel and Blackburn’s daughter, Mary, and operated from their home in a Nashville suburb.

 
The story noted that the practice of hiring relatives for campaign work is both legal and commonplace.

 
In the negotiated settlement agreement with the FEC, entered into March 21, the campaign committee explained that the error in the disbursements was caused by entering the same figure twice and the error in the receipts was a “data input error.”
 

Contact Washington correspondent Bartholomew Sullivan at (202) 408-2726.
 

By ROB JOHNSON
Staff Writer , Nashville Tennessean 

Two former Tennessee customers of nationwide mortgage lender Household International are charging in a Nashville federal court that the corporation was functioning as a racketeering operation when it offered misleading loan terms to its potential clients. The allegations are, in part, a reprise of the charges underlying a $484 million settlement reached in 2002 between Household and 50 state attorneys general who were investigating predatory lending in the ‘’sub prime’’ lending market, which specializes in high-cost loans for those with low credit ratings. 

Nashville attorney G. Kline Preston IV argues that Household is liable under the civil part of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization statutes. These federal criminal laws were designed to aid prosecutors in the battle against organized crime and criminal gangs, but they have a civil provision that makes possible awarding triple damages if a lawsuit is successful. 

Household was acquired by HSBC Holdings PLC in March 2003. Company spokesman James Piepers declined to comment on the federal suit Friday because the corporation had not been served with it. 

Plaintiffs Billy Suddarth Jr. and Angela Suddarth, who did not participate in the settlement, argue that they were victimized by Household’s lending practices after they purchased a business that had previously obtained financing from Household. 

The lawsuit says that more than 13,000 Tennesseans were defrauded by the company. 

Among the complaint’s charges: 

• Household misrepresented interest rates by trying to disguise a high-rate mortgage as a low-rate loan. The plaintiffs also allege that the company misled consumers into thinking that they were reducing their principal amounts because of lower interest rates, when in fact it was because of a requirement that they make extra payments. 

• Household lent money on terms that would eventually require large balloon payments, without disclosing the existence or amount of those balloon payments. 

• The company applied payments to customers’ accounts in such a way that even if a scheduled payment was not late, it would create a shortfall in interest, which resulted in excess finance charges. 

The lawsuit claims the company’s actions ‘’establish a pattern of racketeering activity’’ that defrauded the plaintiffs between Jan. 1, 1999 and Sept. 30, 2002. 

The lawsuit incorporates the pleadings of the state’s action against Household that resulted in last year’s settlement agreement in Davidson County Chancery Court. 

The settlement followed a multistate investigation into allegations that Household was misrepresenting essential information such as loan costs, repayment requirements and insurance terms. 

Tennesseans were entitled to $6.5 million under the terms of the settlement, according to the state Department of Financial Institutions. 

The federal suit seeks unspecified damages. 

The civil provisions of RICO enable plaintiffs’ attorneys to charge that their clients have suffered economic harm because of a pattern of fraud and misconduct. Plaintiffs in a civil action must prove their case based on a ‘’preponderance of the evidence,’’ a less stringent standard than ‘’beyond reasonable doubt,’’ which applies in criminal prosecutions. 

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Echols. 

Rob Johnson can be reached at 664-2162. 

Ref: http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/09/60293750.shtml?Element_ID=60293750 

By Jeremy Heidt – The City Paper
November 19, 2002
 
The female half of the pair accused of running an international dot-com fraud from Mount Juliet remains in federal custody.

Tillie Steeple, 55, of Mount Juliet and the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to postpone a detention hearing on two federal counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud pending the resolution of a state parole violation.
 

Steeple and her partner, David Rabi, are accused of falsely reporting $22 million in revenues in 2001 for their company, 800America.com. An investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspector said the company’s financial history was a massive fabrication by the duo, whom actively concealed previous felony convictions.
 

The parole violation stems from a Steeples’ 1996 conviction for delivering cocaine to a Tennessee prison.

 

Rabi remains in custody in New York, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He is accused of being an international con artist with convictions for various schemes to defraud investors or companies in Europe, the Middle East and North America for more than six decades.
“She’s been duped by this guy,” said Kline Preston IV, an attorney for Steeples.
 

Steeples chatted amiably at the Federal Courthouse building in downtown Nashville Monday afternoon with the two officers assigned to return her to the Grayson County Detention Center in Kentucky and outlined her reason for deciding not to seek release on bond at this time.
 

“They treat us like human beings there, not like animals,” Steeples said of the Kentucky prison facility.
 

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Bob Washko said that if released, Steeples would have just gone right back into state custody and a state prison, so she decided to resolve the parole violation rather than “bounce around the system.”
 

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Copyright 2000-2004, The City Paper LLC.

Nashville Business Journal - November 15, 2002
by Judy Sarles

Nashville Business Journal

Murfreesboro attorney David Allen has no clients in Tennessee and does business with companies based as far away as Hong Kong and Australia.

But Allen doesn’t consider it unusual that clients from all over the world seek him out. It’s the free market at work.

“It’s their right to pick who they think is a competent attorney to handle their matter in the most efficient and cost-effective way, whether it’s me or somebody in Chicago or somebody in Australia,” says Allen. “I don’t think you need to be located in the same city as your clients.”

Using e-mail, the Internet and Federal Express, sole practitioners like Allen and others in Nashville are no longer tied down to a particular geographic area. They can do business across the world without logging a mountain of frequent-flier miles.

A graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Law, Allen began his legal career at the National Futures Association in Chicago. He left the association but stayed in the Windy City to join the law firm Chapman and Cutler, where he worked for about three years. Allen moved to Tennessee about 12 years ago to settle in Murfreesboro, where his wife has roots.

Out of his home office, Allen is handling some major business. He represents Chicago-based Denali Partners LP, which manages a $100 million hedge fund that was started in January 2000. Scott Ramsey, president of Denali Partners, says he had worked with Allen while at another money manager and contacted the attorney when Denali was getting off the ground.
On securities offerings like Denali’s, Allen covers the legal requirements set by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the National Futures Association or the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as individual states’ securities commissions.

For example, Allen recently filed some paperwork with the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Securities in order to perfect an exemption from registration for Denali Partners.

Allen says clients may choose to do business with him because he charges less and provides better service than many large law firms. He doesn’t advertise, so business comes to him through word of mouth.

Other area sole practitioners also are making international moves. Kline Preston IV practices law here and in Russia, where he was an undergraduate student. After developing an interest in the country and in the neighboring Ukraine, Preston got involved in some business operations there about a decade ago. His law work, he says, has been a good complement to those.

In one of his cases, Preston represented Russian Alex Gvozdev, a music group manager who trains young Russian musicians, including Bering Strait, a country band that moved to Nashville and was signed by multiple labels.

“They’ve had a lot of problems with their labels,” says Preston.  
The case involved contracts between the producer and management company and the young Bering Strait musicians. Gvozdev, who is in Moscow, was sued in Davidson County by the band, which wanted to get out of its contract.

The court here applied Russian law, which is different than Tennessee law. In the Russian system, a minor can enter into a contract and get involved in the sale of intellectual property rights at age 14. Under Tennessee law, a person has to be 18.

Most of the other international cases Preston has handled didn’t entail litigation, but dealt with contracts and adoptions.

Preston says that, when practicing law internationally, it is important to speak the language of other countries. A fluent speaker and frequent reader of Russian, he says so much of a language’s nuances is lost when speaking through an interpreter, he says.

Preston also handles overseas matters in other cities in this country, including Atlanta and Chicago, and works closely with a lawyer in Tehran, Iran.

Beatrice Chan Hubbard, who is from Hong Kong originally and is a Vanderbilt University graduate, practices law in China. She worked in Beijing for six months in 1996 for Great Wall Foreign Economic, a Chinese government law firm, which was under the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

“I learned my trade there,” says Hubbard.

Hubbard’s path to Great Wall began when she was legal counsel at Reemay Inc., the successor to a DuPont business unit. Hubbard facilitated the sale to the Chinese government of DuPont’s technology equipment for which Reemay had no use.
“When I was doing that and handling that, I got interested in doing international law work,” Hubbard says.

She left Reemay to join Baker Donelson Bearman & Caldwell, the fourth largest firm in Nashville. While working there, she applied to China’s Ministry of Justice for a special visa to work at the Chinese law firm.

Hubbard has since handled some joint venture work in China and has assisted a client in establishing a wholly foreign-owned enterprise. The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation has to approve foreign investments of more than $30 million.

Stephen Rush of Rush Law Group, who has been practicing law for 26 years, enjoys handling international transactions and the occasional overseas travel that accompanies them. Rush is a sole practitioner, but another attorney works with him on an of-counsel basis.

On the international end of his practice, he primarily handles business transactions. In recent years, there has been a good deal of music and entertainment work, general corporate transactions and business loans.

“I’ve managed some litigation from time to time,” says Rush, who has taken on work in almost every part of Western Europe as well as in Kazakhstan and Russia and has traveled to those countries.

“I find a small law firm can do international projects as well as large firms,” says Rush, who will associate the work if he needs additional expertise.

 One of the more recent transactions Rush took on was a lending deal in which he represented Citibank. The borrower was in the United Kingdom and the guarantor was an offshore company.

In another transaction, Rush represented Global Music Group, a German publishing company that sold its operations to Chrysalis Group, a London music publishing company.

“In virtually all the international projects I’ve done, I always retain a local lawyer,” says Rush. “It’s very interesting and educational and just fun.”
 

jsarles@bizjournals.com, 615-248-2222 ext. 114