People at the courthouse get so used to seeing news reporters at the most sensational cases that they’re surprised, and seem a little nervous, when I show up for a routine hearing. But that’s what I’ve been doing the past couple of months.
It’s part of preparing “Common Law,” a new video series that begins [...]
I went on medical leave two months ago, awaiting the verdict of a racketeering trial involving accused members of the Crips street gang. After sitting through the trial for weeks, the verdict came the morning I was having knee surgery.
The jury convicted five of the six men of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and [...]
The 89 pages of jury instructions in the RICO Crips trial had lawyers comparing it to parts of the Bible in today’s closing arguments.
“We have jury instructions longer than the Psalms, except there is no poetry in them,” defense lawyer Paul McCausland said of the jury instructions given Friday by U.S. District Judge J. Thomas [...]
Weather interfered with the continuation of the federal racketeering trial against six accused Crips gang members this morning.
As sleet peppered the windows of the federal courthouse, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten halted the trial and sent jurors home under the threat of more severe winter storms this afternoon.
Marten spent nearly 2 1/2 hours reading [...]
A cool part about covering a trial via Twitter is seeing reaction from those following the coverage. That’s the “social” part of the Internet social networking experience. But there’s been an interesting twist in the coverage of the federal racketeering trial of six accused Crips gang members.
Not only is it a first here in [...]
Live coverage of courts in Wichita expanded today, when a federal judge said he will allow me to use Twitter during the trial of six accused gang members.
U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten told defense counsel that he would allow me to file live posts, via Twitter, from his Wichita courtroom. Twitter is a [...]
A lot of the people using this meme have blogged about trivial stuff. My time has been absorbed by the grim reality of the justice system, so that’s what I’ve chosen to write about. Here are thoughts, observations and personal notes that are helping me process the trial I’ve covered the past three weeks — [...]
The chief bankruptcy judge in Kansas says he and his colleagues are in the best position to help troubled homeowners, if they’re given the authority they need by a new bill going through Congress.
The bill, which Tuesday passed the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, would allow judges to reduce, or “cram down,” mortgages to meet market [...]
Updated with link to KSN story
Most of the people around the Sedgwick County Courthouse, and around Wichita, know I use Twitter to help cover hearings and trials live from the courtroom. You can even follow the updates if you don’t sign up, using the my Twitter feed at the left of this page.
But lawyers are [...]
Like most content on Kansas.com, this blog has an RSS (”really simple syndication”) feed. You can use RSS in combination with a “feed reader” (Google has a good one) or a personalized home page (like My Yahoo) to collect everything you read regularly online into one place where it is updated automatically.
Use the links below [...]