Is snitching worth it?

Apparently in the case of William Hames, it wasn't.

He lost his pension. He lost his eye. And it appears that he even lost his will to live. Very sad...

Dan Christensen explores the issue here:

After retired police officer William Hames finally came clean about the gun-planting coverup that rocked Miami this decade -- and helped federal prosecutors convict seven fellow dirty officers -- he sought to pick up the pieces of his life.
Instead, they fell apart.
Two city pension funds voted to strip Hames of retirement benefits, citing his 2004 felony convictions in a case in which his cooperation spared him from prison. They demanded Hames, 60, repay the $548,000 he had received since leaving the force in 1998 after 25 years.
Hames, stocking shelves full-time at Publix to comply with the terms of his probation, hired an attorney and tried to fight back, but the law was against him.
On Feb. 21, two weeks before a Miami appeals court upheld a city forfeiture order, the Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic pointed a 9mm handgun toward his face and pulled the trigger in his Orlando-area home.
The blast blew out his left eye, but Hames lived.
''Hames advised when the gunshot did not kill him, he waited a few hours before finally driving himself to the hospital,'' says a Volusia County Sheriff's Office report.

The FPD/CJA conference

The Southern District federal courthouses were mostly quiet Thursday and Friday as the Federal Public Defenders and CJA lawyers had their annual conference, this time in Naples. (Were you there Rumpole?)

The U.S. Attorney's Office was still working though, indicting this high-profile case (via the AP):

A 22-year-old Miami Beach man whose company had a contract to supply the U.S. military with ammunition for forces in Afghanistan has been charged along with three others with providing prohibited Chinese-made ammunition and saying it came from Albania.
Efraim Diveroli and two others charged in the case made their first appearance Friday afternoon in federal court in Miami. A fourth man was being charged in Utah.
Diveroli's company, AEY Inc., was paid more than $10 million for 35 shipments of ammunition that prosecutors say was manufactured in China.
Prosecutors contend AEY Inc. removed markings from containers to hide the fact they were manufactured in China. In each instance, Diveroli certified that the ammunition was manufactured in Albania and submitted an invoice for it, they said.
Diveroli's company was given a $298 million contract by the U.S. Army in 2007 to provide several types of ammunition. It was not clear how much of that contract had been paid, but the first shipment of ammunition listed in court documents was from June 2007.

Here's Alex Acosta, who is getting pretty good at the soundbite:

At a news conference, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said that quality control is one reason the government wants to know the manufacturer and origin of ammunition.
He said Diveroli's company "intentionally cut corners" and that it was "risking the lives of our troops and allies." He also said that the ammunition was "old" but did not say when it was manufactured. He said the defendants could face more than ten years in prison if convicted.

Defense lawyer Howard Srebnick (he is co-counsel with Hy Shapiro) responds:

Diveroli's attorney, Howard Srebnick, said in an e-mail that the government has "misconstrued" the law his client is accused of breaking. He said the government knew Diveroli bought the ammunition from the Albanian government and that it was made in China before a munitions embargo.

If you are looking for some time to kill on Monday morning, check out EW's top 100 movies, TV shows, books, videogames, tech, (and others) of the past 25 years here. Pulp Fiction is a fair choice for #1, but my top TV show is Seinfeld. As for video games, I agree with Tetris, but you gotta move Tecmo Bowl way up...

The Onion covers Kozinski

Here.

I haven't covered all the latest twists and turns in the Kozinski case (if you want all of that, see AboveTheLaw).

From the Onion:

"That's nothing. Have you ever seen the stuff on Justice Scalia's website?"

And here's The Daily Pulp's coverage of the Carlos Miller trial.

Blogging about your own criminal trial...

... as a defendant.
UPDATED BELOW

Yup, you can read about photographer Carlos Miller's trial in state court from Miller's perspective.

I find it fascinating. Apparently, the prosecutor asked Judge Joe Fernandez (in state county court) to prohibit Miller from blogging about the trial. Fernandez denied that request.

Interesting that in a trial about First Amendment rights that the prosecutor would ask for the defendant not to be able to blog about the case....

Good for Judge Fernandez.

Hat Tip Rumpole.

UPDATE -- Well, the trial is over. And blogger/defendant Carlos Miller is not happy with the result. And apparently, Judge Fernandez is not happy with Mr. Miller, sentencing him to more probation than requested by the prosecutor.

For real?

If this GamePolitics post is to be believed, the following occurred:

1. Jack Thompson hand-delivered a letter to Chief Judge Moreno.
2. That letter said in part: "We find yesterday that enemy combatants at Guantanamo are to get more due process from federal judges than what I am to have. I guess my "mistake" was not killing 3000 people to make my point... I demand a hearing."
3. After receiving the letter, Moreno sent U.S. Marshals to Thompson's house.
4. Thompson then wrote this letter to Moreno, which said in part:
I was visited today by two U.S. Marshals who were nice gentlemen, and very professional and courteous in their dealings with me. My complaint is not with them...

I have been asking the Justice Department simply to meet with me about [the video game industry's] criminal targeting of me for harm... Our US Attorney here has obstructed that effort... Instead of being afforded the Justice Department investigation to which I am entitled, I get today harassment from that same Justice Department...

When you and the Justice Department dispatch U.S. Marshals to my home because of a letter I wrote you last week complaining about misconduct by District Court Judges here in the Southern District, the purpose of that visit was to intimidate and harass me...

The notion that I pose some sort of physical threat to you or to the judiciary or to anyone else down here is a cruel joke. The two Marshals said, “If you had actually hand-delivered the letter to Judge Moreno, we would be concerned.” To that I said, “But I did. I did that last week because the gentlemen at the metal detectors would not deliver it, and THEY TOLD ME TO DELIVER IT TO YOU. I buzzed into your inner offices on the thirteenth floor, and I politely handed the letter to your clerk, who politely took it.

If I were a danger to anyone, that would have been the time for me to have proven it, right? In fact, I have never threatened anyone in my entire life, and you know that, and the Marshals said they knew that. They were apologetic about being dispatched to my home. This is outrageous, Judge. Simply outrageous.
5. Thompson then sent this letter to the House Judiciary Committee.

Is all this for real?

Thompson always manages to weave in to his letters and motions the current event of the day and then somehow make those events about him. He has material from the Supreme Court Guantanamo case, the Kozinski stuff, and other current events. Sorry for ruining the next half hour of your day as you go read this stuff. You won't be able to turn away....